


Control

by orphan_account



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Seperation, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 03:08:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 18
Words: 32,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/908183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old enemy of Magnus' shows up, intent on getting Magnus to help him take down the Clave. When Magnus refuses, who better is there for this enemy to take his rage out on than Alec?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Magnus

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is a super old story and while I love the concept I acknowledge that this has a crap ton of flaws in both grammar, spelling, plot, and overall writing. I still love it though, and I hope to re-write it some day. But for now I'm uploading it as is since I'm transfering all my fanfiction over here from FF.net

This day hadn't been going well; everything that could've gone wrong had gone wrong and was continuing to go wrong. Alec's mother, Maryse, had decided to follow him on one of his "walks." Walks that always ended at my house. Even if she knew about us given the fact that Alec had outted himself in front of the Clave, she was still unaware just how much time he spent with me, unaware of just how "together" we we're. She had deluded herself into thinking this was just a phase Alec was going through. But her happy delusions had come to a screeching halt around twenty minutes ago when she had stormed up my stairs and heard some rather intimate noises coming from inside.

Eventually she and Alec had started screaming at each other, her about how wrong his being with me was, him about how right his being with me was. At the time I had thought it best to stay out of the fight unless necessary. I'd figured that Alec knew what to say to calm his mother better then I did and I hadn't wanted to make things worse then they already were. Eventually Maryse had turned and stalked out of the building leaving Alec fuming in the doorway. I'd reached out to try and comfort him but he had swatted my hand away after which he proceeded to scream at me for not helping him deal with his mother. When I tried to explain he just stormed out and slammed the door.

Which lead to where I was now, gripping the counter in front of the sink and trying to get my magic under control because if I didn't I risked hurting myself or anyone who came to close to me. My whole life I'd been good at controlling my magic, it was the first thing I had taught myself so I wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone. But sometimes, when my emotions got out of control, so did my magic. Not being able to control my magic was a horrible feeling, it felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was drowning but couldn't die.

Magic wasn't natural, it was never meant to be contained in a single body and only those born with it in them had a chance of not being killed by it as it grew. Some children born with magic didn't even live to be a few years old before it consumed them. But those that survived grew with their magic, became accustomed to it, learned to control it as best they could. However, if someone lost control of their magic it was nearly impossible to get it back under control, and if you didn't, you died. Without being controlled the magic would surge and grow, forcing its way out of the body it was trapped in, and when all that magic was gone the soul of the person went with it.

My control had slipped considerably by now and I could already feel it surging inside me. If I didn't get control back soon this would end very badly. I tried everything I could think of to calm myself down. I pictured Alec in my mind, pictured him smiling, pictured him telling me he loved me. But it didn't work, my magic kept surging away inside me. Then I heard the last thing I wanted to hear, the door opened.

"No, please no." I moaned, already knowing it was Alec from the way my magic started rush faster and faster as it sensed the presence of a shadow hunter, a shadowhunter it was intent on killing. It took everything I had to fight against the magic and keep myself where I was. As his footsteps came closer the kitchen I searched my mind franticly for a way to make him leave. But it was too late. He had already pushed open the door to the kitchen.


	2. Alec

I sighed to myself as I slid my sparkly key into the lock on the entrance to Magnus's building. I sincerely hoped he wasn't mad at me, I never meant to scream at him, I'd just been so angry. Angry at my mom for bursting in, angry at her for saying Magnus wasn't worth it, angry at her for saying I couldn't really care about Magnus. But I did care about him, more then I'd ever cared about anyone else. He was the one who had saved my life, the one who listened to me when I ranted about the stupid things my family did, the one who made me happy.

All these thoughts crossed my mind as I walked across the flat, and all of them disappeared when I opened the door to the kitchen and saw Magnus. He was leaning over the sink, his hands clenched onto the counter so tight the edge had cut into his palms resulting in two small pools of blood on the floor. And his magic, I could see it swirling around him a mixture of sparks and what looked like blue flames. It formed haphazard patterns around his body and I could see that where it touched his skin it burned him only to heal him soon after.

"ALEC! GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" He screamed at me, his face turning towards me. His eyes rolled back in his head as he lunged towards me and I jumped back, but before he could reach me he latched onto the doorframe and his eyes rolled back so that he was looking at me. "ALEC, GO! PLEASE!" Magnus cried. The pain in his voice made me want to run and hold him, but everything I'd learned in my life told me not to do that. I knew what was happening to him, I knew he was losing control.

"No, let me help you. Just tell me what to do."

"Alec," he sobbed.

"TELL ME!" I commanded. Magnus just stood there for several seconds looking torn between wanting to keep me safe and wanting the pain of his out of control magic to go away.

"Tell me you love me." He moaned as his eyes started to roll back in his head once more.

"I love you, I love you so damn much and I will _always_ love you." I told him. Once he heard what I'd said the magic swirling around his body started to dim but didn't fade completely. So I kept talking, "I don't care what my mom thinks about us, I want to be with you and no one else. You mean everything to me, nothing my mom says or does will change that."

Finally the blue glow of his magic faded away completely and as soon as it did his grip on the door came loose and he started to fall. Before he could hit the floor I leapt forward and grabbed him around the waist. Gently I pulled him over to his fluffy pink couch and made him lay down. His skin was scorching hot and his breathing was rapid.

"Are you gonna be okay?" I asked worriedly. He just nodded his head feebly,

"As long as you stay." He mumbled.

"I'm not going anywhere." I promised as I brushed several damp strands of hair out of his face, "Do you want me to get you some water?"

"Yeah, with ice." He mumbled. I smiled and stood up to walk back into the kitchen. The wooden doorframe had suffered considerably under Magnus's grip and the blood had stared to congeal into sticky pools. But cleaning up could wait until later, right now making sure Magnus was okay was the priority. As soon as I had gotten him to the couch my mind had started to sift through everything I knew about what happened.

His magic had surged out of control, probably because his emotions had gotten out of control. But there was no way that our fight was the only cause of it, there had to be something else going on, something he hadn't told me about. Though the most important thing was that he would more then likely be okay as long as he took it easy and didn't try to use his magic for several days.

When I got back to the couch I helped Magnus sit up and slid behind him, then allowed him to lean back against me with his head tucked under my chin before I gave him the cold glass. He drank the water like he hadn't been allowed any for several weeks. When he was finished I gently took the cup and set it on the coffee table.

"What happened, Magnus? What made you lose control?" I asked quietly.

"A lot of things." He whispered after several moments.

"Like what?" I pressed.

"Like stupid bitchy people thinking I can do everything and thinking I should give up my life just be at their beck and call twenty-four seven…like running into my father two days ago." He whispered the last part. Instinctively I wrapped my arms around his chest and held him as close as I could. Magnus had told me about his father before, told me about how many times he'd tried to kill him because he had decided Magnus wasn't worthy of being alive.

"What did he do?" I asked through clenched teeth.

"Nothing, he just, just said things. Please, I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it we won't. Just get some sleep." I told him. Almost instantly his body went limp with slumber and he started to snore softly. His fever was almost gone now and his breathing had evened out. I was glad he was okay, but terrified by the thought that there was a good chance his father now knew where he lived.


	3. Memories

" _He's a demon child, Helen! We have to get rid of him!" My father hissed, or more accurately the man married to my mother hissed. Charles wasn't my father. I had no idea who my real father was, but it wasn't Charles._

" _But he's my son!" My mother screeched. I just sighed and curled into a ball in the corner of the closet Charles had locked me in. I knew I could undo the lock if I wanted to, but I was afraid something else could happen, I still didn't have control of the-the part of me that was different. I didn't know what to call it. I was only four and had never been allowed out of the house and rarely out of my room. But I did know I was different, my mom couldn't do the things I could and she and Charles both yelled at me when I did those things they couldn't._

" _He is not human, Helen! He could kill-_

_-her. I'd killed her. I'd driven my own mother to her death. I was only five years old and I'd caused her enough pain to force her to hang herself in the barn. Now she was swinging in the breeze right infrount of my face her eyes glazed over and her body limp and cold._

" _Mommy?" I whispered quietly, hoping it wasn't true, hoping it was a sick joke. Slowly I reached out to touch her soft dress but before my hand could caress the soft, hand-woven cotton I was yanked backwards._

" _WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Charles shouted his eyes to were glazed over not with death but with pure hatred. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER YOU LITTLE DEMON?" He screamed._

" _I didn't do anything. I didn't do it. I didn't do it." I sobbed over and over as he dragged me by my hair over to the water trough the horses drank from. I had no idea what he was doing until he lifted me up and slammed my head under the water. He held me down as I thrashed in an attempt to get away from him so I could surface and breath._

" _MOMMY!" I shouted when I managed to break the surface for several beautiful seconds. But then Charles shoved me down even harder and my head hit the bottom of the trough hard enough that the edges of my vision blurred. The hit was so hard I let out the lungful of air I'd managed to suck in. Now, not only was I struggling to get away so I could breath, I was struggling to control the power I could feel raging inside me. It had never felt like this before. It had never been this hard to control._

_Then suddenly Charles's hands were gone from my hair and shoulder. I gratefully surfaced, still in the trough. I expected to see Charles standing there staring at me with just as much hate as before. But that's not what I saw. Charles was burning. Every part of him was on fire even as he rolled on the ground in an attempt to smoother the flames. But the fire wasn't orange like the fire in the hearth; it was blue and even white in some places. As he rolled the flames leapt off of his body and onto the piles of fresh hay he'd brought in from the fields just days before._

_So I ran. Ran as the barn went up in flames, Charles still screaming inside. I ran and ran just looking for a place to hide, to get-_

_-away? Boy! Answer me! Did you run away from your parents?" The man asked. He was tall with dark hair and his outfit was just as dark, all black. It looked similar to leather but different at the same time. In one had he held what looked somewhat like a knife, but it was glowing and it didn't look like any knife I'd ever seen._

"… _not exactly." I mumbled as I eyed the man and his knife._

" _Where are they then?" He asked, when he saw me looking warily at his knife he tucked it back inside his jacket that reached almost to the ground._

" _Probably in hell for giving birth to a demon child." I hissed, now eyeing the place he'd stored the knife. I could still see the bump it created in the fabric and I noticed several similar bumps in other places under his jacket. What was he questioning me for anyways? Couldn't he tell I was a freak? Weren't my cat eyes enough to make him run in fear? That's what they did to everyone else, they also made me realize why my parents never let me look in a mirror._

_He just stared at me for several seconds before he continued, "How old are you?"_

" _Six." I snapped, hoping he would leave once his curiosity was satisfied._

" _Do you know what you are?" He asked next. The question threw me completely off track. Did I know what I was? I was a demon…wasn't I?_

" _No…" I responded quietly, wondering what he would say._

" _You're a warlock." He told me. I just stared at him. "I saw you steal that apple earlier." He'd seen me levitate the apple off of the cart? So much for thinking no one was looking. When I started to back up in preparation to run so he couldn't punish me for stealing the food he stepped into my path and held up his hands._

_Slowly he sat down and motioned for me to do the same. When I didn't he reached into his jacket and pulled out a water skin which he handed to me. Quickly I popped off the lid and sniffed at it, it seemed normal so I took a hesitant sip. When nothing happened I greedily drank the water. Once I'd had my fill, about half the skin, I handed it back to the man and sat down with him. He spent the next hour telling me stories about demons and shadow hunters, vampires and werewolves, witches and warlocks. I listened with rapt fascination. So this was what I was, this was the world I belonged to._

_Then he told me a story of people called "The Silent Brothers." Apparently they were the most powerful shadowhunters alive. Right now they were located in Spain he told me. Then he said something that made pay even more attention, The Silent Brothers sometimes took in downworlder children in an attempt to teach them control so they didn't end up like so many other downworlders that were against the shadowhunters._

" _Can you take me there!?" I asked eagerly, the idea of being able to learn control mesmerized me._

" _Sure kid, I'm on my way there to visit my family in fact. By the way, what's your name?" He asked._

" _I don't have a name." I told him honestly_

_Several days latter we were standing in a dark underground room in front of several people that looked like nothing more then skin stretched over bone. And they were talking inside my mind which almost made me start running._

_'No name? Well, then we shall name you...Magnus"-_

_-Bane, right, thank you for coming here." The young man said as he handed me a small room key to room number 4 of the small hotel on the outskirts of some small border town in Spain. I'd left my home with The Silent Brothers four years ago on my sixteenth birthday today it was my twentieth birthday and I finally felt that I'd learned enough control to make myself immortal. Quickly I walked to the room and locked the door behind me. Next I pulled the curtains shut and put one of the blankets from the bed over the gap at the bottom of the door. Then I shoved the bed from the middle of the room over to the edge where I flipped it onto its side to give myself as much room as possible._

_Taking a deep breath I opened my bag and pulled out the jar of blue paint I'd bought before I came to the hotel. I unscrewed the lid and concentrated on pulling the paint out of the jar with my magic. Once it was all out and floating in a glob above my hand I lowered it to the worn out carpet and slowly drew a large pentagram that used almost all of the paint to complete. When I was finished I set the jar of paint down on a rickety table next to the door and sat down in the center of the pentagram. As soon as I focused my magic as best as I could I started murmuring the spell to make myself immortal. Normally the spell would be preformed by another warlock, but I didn't know any so I was attempting to do it myself even though it could kill me. Besides, it's not like I had anything live for._

_What seemed like an eternity later I felt the spell complete and the glow of my magic faded away. I slumped onto the floor completely exhausted and ready to just fall asleep. But before I could drift away the edges of the door began to glow and then it broke away from its frame and flew across the room missing me by inches. Even though my eyes were fogged with the need for sleep I could see the silhouette of someone walking towards me from the now door-less doorway. When whoever it was reached me they bent down and pulled me up by the neck of my shirt._

" _Hello, Magnus." The man whispered as he pinned me to the wall._

" _Who are you?" I mumbled, to tired to try and get away._

" _Who am I? I'm your father. Your blood father." He cackled._

" _You, you are?" I asked as I attempted to focus my eyes so I could see him better._

" _Yes, I am." He replied. "Now, I have a question for you. Will you join me in bringing down the Clave?"_

" _No!" I answered instantly. I didn't like the Clave, but I would never try to bring them down either._

" _That's too bad." He hissed and he pulled his fist back and punched me hard in the stomach. I cried out in pain, my body was already sore from using so much magic. Before I even had the chance to attempt to fight back he dropped me to the floor stepped back and proceeded to stab me with a knife he'd pulled out of thin air. The knife was glowing with magic and when it stabbed me I could feel the searing heat of the blade and I knew that if I opened my eyes it would be red-_

"MAGNUS!" Someone shouted, their hands were gripping onto to my shoulders and shaking me. I shot up from my horizontal position and shoved the person off of me, not realizing who it was. Quickly I looked around confused trying to figure out where I was. Then it came back to me. I was in my flat with Alec. It was Alec I had shoved away when he woke me from the memories disguised as dreams.

"Alec, I'm sorry." I groaned as I slumped forward into his waiting arms. My chest was heaving up and down and I could still feel the phantom pain of my father stabbing me.

"It's okay, Magnus. It was just a dream." Alec said soothingly as he rubbed a hand up and down my back. I just curled into him, grateful for the comfort and warmth he provided. For several minutes we just sat there while I caught my breath. Sometime while I'd been asleep Alec had carried me into our room, though he still called it my room no matter how much I reprimanded him for it.

"Thanks for waking me up." I mumbled after awhile.

"You're welcome. You really scared me though. You were thrashing around as screaming. It took me almost five minutes to wake you up." He responded. I cringed at the idea that I'd put him through even more torment today. "Do you wanna talk about it?" He asked gently.

Did I want to talk about it? I'd only ever told Alec small pieces of my past. I had only ever told him that my blood father had attacked me multiple times, never how far he went when he did.

"Later." I sighed. "I'm hungry right now."

"Okay," He conceded, "I'll go put the pizza in the microwave." He responded before he disentangled himself from me and started to walk away. But I didn't let him get far before I jumped up and wrapped my arm around his waste, I need the physical contact right now. He just smiled, blushed a little, and kept walking with me attached to his side.


	4. Recounting

We sat in silence on the couch eating the reheated pizza and watching some mundane TV show that I wasn't even paying attention to. I was to busy watching Magnus, I was worried about him. Ever since he'd woken up from whatever nightmare he'd had he wouldn't let go of me. I didn't mind it, but he was never this clingy or this quiet when watching mundane TV. Whatever that nightmare had been about it had really gotten to him. But I didn't want to press the issue either.

"Alec," He said suddenly as he turned to look me in the eye, "you know I love you to right?"

"Yes," I answered. "I've always known that."

"Good." He started to turn away and back to the television but I grabbed his shoulder to prevent him from doing it.

"Talk to me." I said gently. He just shifted uncomfortably but still kept a firm hold on my free hand. After several minutes he turned off the TV and crawled onto my lap resting his head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him knowing it would make him feel slightly better. It was odd having the roles reversed, I was so used to talking to him when I was upset but it had never been the other way around. The only other times I'd seen him upset was when I'd been hurt, and I had always been to out of it to try and comfort him those times.

"Do any of your textbooks tell you what it's like for someone who loses control of their magic?" He said finally.

"No."

"It hurts, a lot. It feels like drowning in boiling water, but not be able to die from it. You can't catch your breath, you can't even move without increasing the pain tenfold. And it just gets worse the more your control slips." He explained. I was doing my best to stay silent but the more he talked the more I found myself wanting to tell him to stop. I hated listening to him describing the pain he'd been in, it made me sick. But I knew he needed to talk so I kept silent doing nothing more then holding him tighter and gently running my thumb back and forth across his shoulder. "Eventually you can't even think straight and by then the magic starts taking control of you. Once you get to that point it's pretty much impossible to get your control back…but I did, thanks to you." He smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes.

"You should've told me how stressed you were sooner, we could've kept this from happening." I mumbled into his hair.

"I know, I just-just didn't think it was bad as it was." Magnus sighed, his fingers undoing the buttons on my shirt so he could trace the permanent runes there.

"Tell me about your nightmare." I urged gently.

"It wasn't a nightmare exactly…it was a memory, several memories." He responded.

"Memories of?" I asked when he didn't continue.

"What happened to my parents, the guy who brought me to the Silent Brothers, the first time my dad attacked me was the one you woke me up from." He answered. "You know, the guy who brought me to the Silent Brothers was a Lightwood?" Magnus told me, sitting up slightly.

"Really?" I knew he was trying to change the subject but I was still interested.

"Yeah, his name was Eric. He was twenty-two years old. He saw me steal an apple from a cart using magic so he confronted me. Eric was the first person to tell me what I really was." Magnus elaborated. I made a mental note to check my family tree the next chance I got for this Eric guy before I tried to coax Magnus back on topic. He was not going to get out of talking to me if I could help it.

"So what about the other memories?" I asked. He already knew I only wanted to know about the one I'd woken him from since he had told me about his parents the first time we met.

He curled back up against me before he started talking, "It was my twentieth birthday and I had decided that was the day I was going to make myself immortal. So I checked myself into a hotel using the small amount of cash I had and performed the spell. I didn't want to do it outside because I was afraid of what could happen if I passed out. The spell used so much of my magic that I was completely exhausted and could barely move. Then the door flew off of its hinges and my blood father stormed into the room, picked me up and pinned me against a wall. He asked me to join him in taking down the clave. I told him no and he started attacking me with a knife that he had heated to red hot. Eventually I passed out and the next thing I knew I was in a bed in an unfamiliar house with bandages on my wounds. When I tried to heal myself nothing happened which scared the shit out of me."

He paused to take a deep breath before he continued. "I got up off the bed and tried to leave but I fell over and the sound made the guy who brought me there come running in. He was another warlock named Iakona who was a very skilled healer. Iakona told me that he'd been staying in the hotel as well when he heard the sounds of the fight and came to help. He was able to force my father to leave but when he tried to heal my wounds he found out that my father had enchanted the knife so the wounds couldn't be healed my magic. Iakona had taken me back to his house with him and I stayed there for about two weeks before I was able to leave." Magnus finished, he was shaking slightly.

"How was your father able to find you?" I asked him as I ran my hand along the length of his arm in an attempt to soothe him.

"I found out later that when I was one he came back and put a spell on me so that when I made myself immortal it would signal him and he would be able to tell where I was." He told me.

"How many other times has he attacked you?" I inquired, not wanting to let him stop talking now that he'd finally started.

"Sixteen other times, but I only remember seven of them. After he attacked me the first time he stopped attacking me physically for a long time. He would force his way into mind and make me see things I really don't want to go into. Eventually I learned a spell to keep him from doing that and he went back to attacking me physically. Every time he attacked me I would go to Iakona and let him heal me and stay with him until I felt safe again. Iakona is sixty-eight years older then me and he's been like an older brother ever since I met him." He answered.

"When was the last time you went to see Iakona?" I asked.

"The last time I went to have him heal me because of my father was the year before I became high warlock so about twenty years now. After that my father disappeared for a long time and I thought that maybe he had died…until two days ago." Magnus sighed; he knew I hadn't wanted to know the last time he'd just gone to see Iakona to visit.

For awhile we just sat there quietly, him curled against me, me with my arms wrapped protectively and reassuringly around him. Then suddenly he stood up from the couch pulling me with him.

"I feel like throwing a party." He explained. While I knew that he only wanted to throw a party to cheer himself up I didn't think it was a good idea to be sending out invitations with his address on them when his father was lurking around the city.

"How about we just go clubbing instead?" I asked, "Jace, Clary, Izzy and Simon are going tonight, they called while you were asleep." I told him.

"Really?" He asked as he turned around to face me his hand still in mine.

"Yeah."

"Fine, I'll go clubbing instead _if_ you let me dress you." He said mischievously. I just sighed and kept telling myself over and over again in my head that it would cheer him up which he really needed right now.

"Okay, but not to out there okay?" I told him.

"Don't worry, darling. I wouldn't do that to you." He responded as he dragged me into his bedroom. Once we were inside he told me to sit on the bed and let go of me for the first time since he'd woken up then disappeared inside his closet. While he was exploring inside I stripped down to nothing but my boxers knowing he would make me do it anyways, it wasn't the first time he'd succeeded get me to allow him to do this. He was still fishing around in his racks of sparkling rainbow clothing once I was finished undressing so I called Jace and told him we were coming and would meet them at Pandemonium. As soon as I hung up Magnus came out with an outfit in his hands, he smiled when he saw I'd already stripped down.

"Here, love, try this on." He instructed as he handed me the outfit before disappearing back inside his closet more then likely to find shoes and accessories. Laughing quietly at his enthusiasm I set the outfit down on the bed and picked up the pants. They were a dark blue, almost black colour with tatters and holes. There were also splatters of silver paint on the bottoms of the pant legs that thinned out as they went up, the pockets as well had silver paint splattered on them.

"Not bad." I murmured to myself as I slipped the tight pants on. They were tight but not uncomfortably so and they fit so well I had the suspicion Magnus had bought them specifically for me. Next I grabbed and examined the shirt. It was a lighter blue then the pants and was a sleeveless button up. There were silver threads woven into silky fabric that reflected the light as the shirt shifted. As I slipped the shirt on I thought about how I would've never worn anything like this when I had first met him. But being with Magnus had had its effect on me, a very good effect on me as far as I was concerned.

As soon as the shirt was on Magnus came back out holding a pair of shoes and a belt along with several items of jewelry hanging from his fingers. He deposited them all on the bed before walking in a slow circle around me and running his eyes up and down my body causing me to blush.

"Perfect." He said happily once he was done with his inspection. "Now put the other stuff on." He commanded playfully as he pointed at the stuff on the bed. I punched him lightly before I sat down and pulled the black shoes on which also fit me suspiciously well. Next I put on the silver studded belt that I knew was one of Magnus favourites to put me in as well as to wear himself. Before I could put the necklace on he gently grabbed my hand and slipped it over my head himself. The necklace was a simple round blue stone in a silver cage that allowed it to roll around slightly inside. Next he slipped a stud bracelet onto my wrist that matched the belt as well as several rings that he gently slid my fingers into.

"Having fun?" I asked amusedly as he put the jewelry on me.

"It would be even more fun if you let me do your make-up to." He said with a puppy dog look in his eyes. Albeit I had let him dress me several times, but I had yet to allow him to put any make-up on me. But given the circumstances I gave in because I knew how happy it would make him. He was going to owe me latter though. My response resulted in him wrapping me in a bone crushing hug and a very heated kiss before he hauled me to his vanity table. He quickly flipped the rotating mirror so I couldn't see myself before he began to sift through the drawers and the top of the table.

After about five minutes he had several products laid out in a row and instructed me to close my eyes. The feeling of having make-up applied to my eyes was odd, but not unpleasant. It was actually kind of relaxing even though I was a little worried about the results. Eventually he started messing with my hair that had grown out long enough that I kept it in a ponytail now. Several times I had considered cutting it but Magnus always found a way to talk me out of, apparently he liked it long. Though I had a feeling one of the reasons behind him liking it was because it would give him more options when I eventually allowed him to play with it like I had today.

"Can you use any of your magic?" I asked as I felt him comb some of my hair back into a ponytail at the nape of my neck.

"Some, just for little things though." He replied. "It'll be awhile before I can do more then get us dinner from some restaurant though."

"How long?" I only wanted to know because I was afraid of what would happen if he ran into his father again and couldn't defend himself if he got attacked.

"Three or four weeks probably, but if I got attacked I would still be able to defend myself, magic isn't my only skill." He told me, accurately guessing what I was worried about.

"Alright, but please just be careful."

"Trust me, Alec, I will be. Besides I'm not gonna go more then five feat away from you until I get my magic back, I know you wouldn't let anything happen to me." He replied bending down to kiss my cheek. The thought that he trusted me enough to defend him meant a lot to me, more then he knew. "Alright! I'm done." He said as he stepped back and flipped the mirror back around.

My eyes were coated with deep blue eye shadow that faded to purple at the edges with a soft layer of silver over the top. Magnus had pulled most of my hair back into a ponytail though a fair amount hung in my face. He had also added several blue streaks and one silver streak to the parts that hung in my face.

"Well?" He asked anxiously when I didn't say anything.

"I like it." I reassured him, and I did honestly like what he'd done.

"Really?" He said excitedly his whole face lighting up.

"Really." I replied as I stepped forward and kissed him. "Your turn to get ready." I said as I pulled away. He smiled before disappearing back into his closet.

Half an hour later we were walking out of the building. Magnus had put on a pair of lime green skinny jeans, silver boots that went to his knees over the skinny jeans and a bright purple shirt that was made of an extremely shinny material over which he had on a gold fishnet shirt. His eye shadow was lime green that faded to gold, his lipstick a sparkly purple colour and his hair had streaks of every colour he had on in it and had been spiked into some form of a messy Mohawk.

"Want to drive or walk?" He inquired as we reached the street.

"Drive." I decided. I needed as much energy as possible to keep up with Magnus for the rest of the night. He just smiled as we walked to the ally where he kept his mustang. The mustang was hot pink with silver racing stripes and every possible accessory a mustang could have. It was also Magnus favorite toy and I often found myself wondering how often he used magic to get out of speeding tickets. He slipped into the drivers' seat and started the car as I slid into the passenger seat.

We drove to the club in a comfortable silence with the only noise being the radio playing one of Magnus's CD's. As soon as we arrived at the club he pulled into a parking space and locked the door as soon as we got out. We walked quickly hand in hand to the door.

"Thanks." He said suddenly and he turned and kissed me.

"Why?" I asked. But before he could answer we were engulfed by the pounding music.


	5. Competition

Pandemonium had its usual assortment of downworlders and humans that night all dancing and swaying to the pounding music under the seizure inducing lights. Though not a single one of them came close to the beauty that was my Alec, my Alec who I had unwillingly put through hell earlier today but still loved me enough to do anything to keep me happy. 'My Alec', I loved the sound of that.

"Alec! Magnus!" Clary shouted from across the dance floor her hand waving in the air. Alec waved back to let her know we'd seen her as the two of us started to weave our way across the dance floor through the sway of bodies. About half way across the floor a young human boy, no more then sixteen, reached out and tried to pull Alec into a dance. Quickly I stepped forward and swatted the boy's hand a way before I pressed myself against Alec's back and began attacking his neck with my lips to show that he was mine. I felt him laugh under my lips but the sound was swallowed by the music. As soon as I was satisfied that I'd established to everyone with in sight that Alec was not available I let him continue pulling us across the dance floor to the others.

Clary was dressed in a sequined black shirt and bright blue pants, Jace in all black as always, Izzy in a tight red dress and Simon who looked slightly lost was wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

"Hello little shadowhunters…and vampire." I greeted once we were close enough that we didn't need to shout to be heard.

"Hey! I'm so glad you guys could come." Isabelle replied happily, "You look good, Alec. It's about time you started listening to Magnus when it comes to clothes because you have no fashion sense at all." I laughed at her comment and Alec blushed as he always did when someone complimented him, even if they insulted him afterwards.

"So is there a specific reason we've all gathered here tonight?" I inquired as I slipped behind Alec and wrapped my arms around his waist. He leaned back into the embrace with a contented sigh crossing his arms and resting them on mine.

"We we're board and there hasn't been any demon activity so we all decided to go out and have a little fun." Clary answered. At this Simon and Jace both rolled their eyes which made it fairly clear that they hadn't been involved in the decision and had other ideas of the definition of fun when it came to Clary and Isabelle.

"Well thanks for inviting us, definitely makes this crappy day seem slightly worth it." I laughed.

"Crappy day?" Isabelle inquired.

"Mom followed me to Magnus's flat." Alec told her.

"And she heard some very intimate noises coming from inside." I elaborated knowing Alec would never admit it. "Because of said noises she decided to march right in, and well, it didn't end well."

"Fun. Guess that explains why she came home in such a bad mood this morning. I just feel sorry for Dad having to deal with her for the next week in Idris." Isabelle mused.

"They went to Idris?" Alec asked in a confused and slightly worried tone. Why did he always assume the worst?

"Yeah, they got invited to some wedding." She clarified. "Now then, I'm going to dance. Come on Clary, let's go see how many guys we can make hard." Clary just laughed and followed Isabelle into the crowd.

"How did we get talked into this again?" Simon asked no one in particular as he watched the girls walk away.

"We'll I don't know about you, but I was promised sex." Jace replied. At this Simon stormed off after the girls.

"Come on, Jace, it's not like you two are competing for Clary anymore. Can't you just play nice?" Alec scolded. I scoffed at this, it was Jace we were talking about after all. He never played nice.

"No, we aren't competing over Clary. But we are competing to see who gets laid first." Jace replied with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Guess I beat both of you then." Alec told him, I could hear the smile in his voice. As soon as the words left his lips Jace chocked on the drink he had just swallowed. What had gotten into Alec today? He let me dress him, let me do his make-up and now he was actually admitting that he'd already had sex with me?

"What?" Jace nearly shouted, his eyes watering from nearly passing out due to the drink he'd chocked on.

"You heard him." I smiled widely, "If you guys are competing to see who gets laid first, Alec beat both of you about a year ago." For once Alec didn't blush.

"A year ago?" Jace repeated, I could see the wheels turning in his mind. "But that would've been right after the final battle."

"It was two nights after the final battle." I informed him, Alec did blush slightly at this. Laughing I pulled him onto the dance floor leaving Jace standing by the wall with his mouth hanging open. "I didn't say too much did I?" I whispered in Alec's ear as I started to grind into him.

"No, you didn't." He replied after a soft moan escaped his lips. Slowly he started to grind back against me something I knew he still wasn't quite comfortable doing in public, though when we were home alone…

"Did you write the fearless rune on yourself or something?" I asked as I nibbled on his ear.

"No." He laughed, "Why do you ask?"

I just shrugged, "You seem to be going very far out of your comfort zone today." Slowly he turned his head and whispered in my ear,

"I have my reasons." The way his lips brushed my ear made a shiver run down my spine.

"What reasons?" I asked wanting to feel his lips brushing me ear again.

"I'll tell you when we get back to your place." He responded.

"Alexander, how many times do I have to tell you? It's _our_ place. Not mine, _ours._ " I scolded. He just sighed and shoved his hips back against mine slightly harder then before completely derailing my train of thought.

After about half an hour of shifting around the dance floor and drawing many pairs of eyes we both decided to take a break and headed back to where we had left Jace. He was still leaning against the wall but he had been rejoined by Isabelle.

"I'm gonna go grab us some drinks, love." I whispered in Alec's ear as I pulled away. He nodded and went to stand with his brother and sister.

Quickly I worked my way along the wall and to the small bar that served drinks for legal and underage patrons. As cute as Alec was when he was drunk I had a feeling he wouldn't agree to alcohol with everything that happened today. So instead I ordered two cokes with lime and started to walk back to Alec and the others. But I never got there. As soon as I walked passed the emergency exit door it opened and I was pulled roughly outside. As soon as I was outside the door was slammed behind me and I was face to face with my blood father.

He was tall, though not as much as me. While I had only a slight Asian look to me he was fully Asian, probably Chinese or Korean though I had never cared enough to ask.

"Shit." I murmured both glasses dropping to the ground and shattering.

"Hello, Magnus. Again." He whispered in a sickeningly sweet voice. I reached behind me to try and pull the door back open but it was securely locked and I didn't have enough magic to attempt to unlock it that way. I just had to hope Alec had seen me get pulled outside and would come to help.

"What do you want?" I asked as I shifted as far from him as I could in the small alley. He was blocking my only way out to the street though if I could get around him there was a chance I could run for it.

"To give you one last chance to join me in bringing down the Clave. If you decline again, I will kill you and this time I will be sure to stay and assure your death." He stated like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Why are you so interested in bringing down the Clave?" I asked as I tried to stall for time.

"I will only tell you that if you join me. So, yes or no?" He told me. When I didn't answer his face slipped into an ugly mask of hate. Before I had a chance to see what he was doing he pulled his fist back and slammed it into my face. As I stumbled backwards I vaguely recalled him once saying something about how it felt so much better to beat me with his hands then his magic because then he could feel the bones crack and the skin split open. The heel of my boot caught on the edge of a crate when I was stumbling backwards and I fell. My head slammed into the wall behind me and my vision exploded into stars.

"Fuck." I mumbled as I struggled to sit up. The second I tried to lift my head I was overcome by dizziness and collapsed back down onto the ground.

"You're pathetic." My father scoffed.

"Get the fuck away from him." Alec said through clenched teeth as he stepped through the door with Jace and Isabelle on his heels. All three of them had weapons drawn and when they stepped through the door they ended up directly between me and my father.

"This is family business. Go away." My father said haughtily. Apparently he was mad at being interrupted in his attempt to beat me to a bloody pulp.

"You are wanted by the Clave, Extinium. We've already sent them a fire message, they'll be here with in seconds." Alec stated calmly. It was hard to tell if he was telling the truth without being able to see his face.

"How do you know my name?" Extinium hissed his eyes narrowing.

"Most shadowhunters know your name, you're highly wanted among the Clave. You have tortured five shadowhunters to death after all." Alec answered just as calmly. For several seconds my father just stood there his eyes darting between Alec, Jace, and Isabelle.

"You can't get rid of me this easily." He hissed before he turned on his heel and raced out of the alley. As soon as he was out of sight Alec spun around and crouched in front of me. Gently he pulled me into a sitting position with his hands on my shoulders to keep me from falling over again. I raised one of my hands and pinched the end of my broken nose in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

"Do you have enough magic to heal your nose?" Alec asked. I just shook my head slightly instantly regretting the move as another wave of dizziness overcame me.

"Why don't you have enough magic?" Isabelle asked as she handed me a handkerchief from her purse. I took it gratefully and pressed it against my nose.

"It's complicated." Alec answered for me. "Are you gonna be okay?" He asked me worriedly.

"Yeah, I think so." I told him knowing better then to nod now. "Is the Clave really on its way here?"

"No." Jace answered, he was the only one not crouched down and he was scanning the people walking on by on the street the alley emptied onto. "Now would one of you please explain what just happened?" He asked looking between Alec and me.

"Not here, Jace." Alec told him as he gently pulled me into a standing position putting my free arm around his shoulder and one of his arms around my waist to keep me from falling over again. "Izzy, go inside and get Clary and Simon and come back to the institute. Jace come with us." He instructed.

"We're going to the institute?" I mumbled through the handkerchief that I still had pressed against my nose.

"Yeah, we should be safer there with the others around." Alec answered. Quickly we worked our way around to the parking lot and Alec pulled the keys out of my pocket to unlock the car.

"Somehow, this doesn't surprise me." Jace replied as he surveyed my mustang before he pulled one of the seats forward and climbed into the back. Alec gently helped me into the passenger seat and went around to the drivers' side. "You drive?" Jace asked as Alec started the car.

"Yeah." He mumbled as he backed out of the parking space and turned onto the road.

"Since when?" Jace pressed.

"Since I felt like learning how to." Alec answered tersely. The rest of the five minute ride passed in silence and after about two minutes my nose finally stopped bleeding. When we pulled into the institute Alec drove around the back and pulled the car into a small alcove which held one other car that I figured belonged to his parents. He quickly got out and walked around to help me. Normally I would've waved him away but I was still dizzy from hitting my head.

The door we walked through lead us directly into the infirmary where Alec led me over to a bed before he went and pulled out a small fist aid kit. He came back and gently ran his two fingers against my nose one on each side. Even though the touch was light and gentle it made pain shoot through my skull and I winced. Today was really not my day.

"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to set your nose." Alec said apologetically. I just nodded and closed my eyes really wishing I had my magic back. Thankfully Alec knew what he was doing and was quick about it so it didn't hurt as much as I had expected. Next he secured a bandage over my nose to hold it in place so it would heal correctly.

"Gonna tell me what's going on yet?" Jace asked impatiently from behind Alec. Alec just sighed and started to explain the basic details as he wiped the dried blood off of my face. He left out the more personal details and only told Jace the necessary facts which I was grateful for.

"So that guy will more then likely try again?" Jace asked.

"Probably." I sighed as Alec gently pressed his lips against mine now that he'd finished wiping the blood away. Just then Clary and Isabelle walked through the door of the infirmary.

"Are you okay, Magnus?" Isabelle asked once she was close enough to be heard.

"I'm fine." I sighed as I swallowed the two Advil Alec had handed me.

"Jace, you can tell the others what's going on. Magnus and I will be in my room." Alec told all of them as he pulled me up from the bed and started walking with me across the infirmary. As soon as we were out of the infirmary I pulled Alec into a tight hug with my head resting in the crook of his neck.

"I love you." I mumbled.

"I love you to. Are you okay?" He asked.

"I don't know." I told him honestly. For several moments we just stood there holding each other happy that we were both okay. Then suddenly Alec pulled away.

"I left my stelle back in the car. I'll be right back." He explained. I just nodded, it didn't make me as dizzy this time.

I waited several minutes before I started to get worried and went and opened the door to go after Alec and see what was taking him so long. When I opened the door I saw my father with and unconscious Alec slung over his shoulder stepping through a portal. I jumped forward and tried to grab them but before I could they were gone and the portal closed behind them.

"ALEC!" I shouted franticly. "ALEC!"


	6. Capture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be warned, this chapter contains scenes of torture.

Quickly I walked away from Magnus and back outside to retrieve my stelle from his car. It wasn't completely necessary that I went and got it right now, but I needed to just step away from everything for a moment to clear my head. What happened had really scared me. If I hadn't come out when I didn't, Magnus probably would've been hurt much worse or even killed by his blood father, Extinium. The idea of losing him…it terrified me. But what terrified me even more was the fact that I could lose him to something I had a chance at preventing.

As soon as I retrieved my forgotten weapon from the car I re-locked it and turned to go back into the institute. I took the long way around the front instead of going back into the infirmary to avoid Jace and the others.

"Hello." Someone hissed from behind me. I spun looking for the source off the sickeningly familiar voice. But no one was there as far as I could tell. Slowly I walked backwards up the steps my eyes sweeping back and fourth looking for any sign of movement. Just as I reached the top step I felt a sharp pain on the back of my neck and my entire body went limp though my vision stayed clear. Before I could fall more then a few inches someone grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me onto the small porch.

When I saw Extinium leering down at me I wanted to shout for help but I couldn't even move my mouth to make the sound. I was completely paralyzed though still breathing and conscious which meant this had to be the result of a spell.

"You should not have interfered boy. If you valued your life you would have let me do what I wished to my son. But you did not and for some reason my son seems to value you which makes you of value to me." As he talked he opened a portal and slung me over his shoulder. Just as he stepped through the portal I saw Magnus open the door and reach for us a look of utter panic on he features. I wanted so bad to reach out to him but I still couldn't move.

As we spun through the portal I caught glimpses of different places, a little white house, mountains, a field, skyscrapers, the ocean, even a cabin in the woods. And then we landed in what appeared to be a dark and unused warehouse. Several crates were stacked against one wall and there were numerous chains and hooks hanging from the ceiling. Extinium tossed me on the ground and I felt my wrist snap from the impact. Even though it hurt like hell I couldn't make a single sound of pain. Quietly Extinium murmured what I assumed to be a spell and one of the hooked chains lowered itself from the ceiling.

"We are going to have _so_ much fun." He cackled as he bound my wrists with rope. The feeling of him tightening the rope around my broken wrist made tears role down my face but I still couldn't cry out. As soon as he was satisfied the bonds wouldn't slip off he took the hooked end of the chain and slipped the hook between my wrists and under the rope. The added pressure on my broken wrist made my breathing accelerate as I tried to ignore the pain. Extinium just laughed and murmured another spell that caused the chain to pull me up at least a foot into the air.

"Now then," He waved his hand and suddenly I could move my head again, only my head. I had to fight to keep my sounds of pain from escaping my lips. "Who are you?" When I didn't answer he just sighed and asked another question, "What are you to my son?" Still I didn't answer. He wasn't going to get anything out of me. "Fine, I guess I'll just have to force you to answer." Extinium hissed.

Unexpectedly my vision blurred for a fraction of a second though when it refocused nothing had changed other then the fact that Extinium was slightly closer.

"You will give me answers willingly," He took off his shirt, "or," He grabbed my hip roughly and pulled me down so my feet were just barely touching the ground. "I will force them out of you." Suddenly he shoved his hips against mine and bit down on my collar bone hard enough to draw blood. It was blaringly bright in my mind what he was planning to do to me but I still couldn't move to force him away and I wasn't going to tell him what he wanted.

"Go to hell." I spat at him. At this he stepped back and raked his fingers across my chest leaving bloody lines in their wake.

"You _will_ tell me what I want to know. Humans can only survive torture for so long." He smiled as he stepped forward again. I knew there was no point in holding my breath to make myself pass out, he'd just wake me up, so I settled for just shutting my eyes and attempting to drown everything out. The feeling of him ripping my clothes off, the feeling of him grabbing me roughly, every feeling, every sense I attempted to shut off or drown out. Thinking of Magnus was the only thing that provided some relief from what was happening to me, though not much.

It seemed like what he was doing to me lasted for ages before he stepped away. Once more my vision blurred out and quickly refocused. Extinium was back where he'd been before, all of his clothes back on. But my clothes were as well… There was no way he could've preformed the spells to fix my clothes and get them back on as well as get his cloths back on so quickly. Abruptly I remember my conversation with Magnus from earlier,

" _He would force his way into mind and make me see things I really don't want to go into."_

So this was what it felt like to be trapped in one of his father's illusions? How could it feel so real? How could it hurt so much if it was just in my head? Magical illusions weren't supposed to seem this real, or feel this real.

"Will you talk now?" He asked. I just glared at him. "Fine." He shrugged. "If that's how you want to play, that's how we'll play." Once more my vision blurred but this time it didn't refocus. Instead it felt like someone had wrapped their hands around my throat and was slowly beginning to squeeze. I was suffocating; I couldn't even pull in a small breath. My eyes were watering and my brain was screaming at me to fight back but I still couldn't move. I wasn't sure how long it was before my vision came back and the hands vanished from my neck. As soon as the hands were gone I started gasping for breath, even if it had been an illusion I still felt like I had been deprived of oxygen.

"You're quite stubborn." Extinium mused as he looked contemplatively at me. "O' well. I can still break you. I'll just have to be a little more extreme." Once again my vision blurred out.

This time when my vision refocused all I could see was fire. All I could feel was fire. It felt as though I was burning alive. Not even thinking of Magnus gave me comfort from the excruciating pain this time. As if the pain of burning wasn't bad enough I suddenly felt one of the bones in my left leg snap and I cried out in agony even louder then before. The fire continued around me as more of my bones felt as though they were snapping into a million pieces.

I wanted to scream for him to stop, to tell him anything he wanted to know so he would make the pain stop. But I couldn't do that, I couldn't put Magnus in danger. I wouldn't do that to him, no matter how much it hurt. No matter how much pain I was in I wouldn't put Magnus in danger. I would not tell his father anything, even if there was a chance it would make the pain stop.

"You fucking asshole! Tell me what I want to know!" I heard Extinium scream and suddenly the illusion switched. No longer was I surrounded by fire. Now I was surrounded by water and it was filling my lungs. I was gasping for air which only allowed more water to pour into my lungs. The only other time I had come close to drowning was when I had fallen off of Valentine's boat and Magnus had jumped in to the water to save me. But this was nothing like that time. This was agonizing because I never had the bliss of losing consciousness. Never had the bliss of opening my eyes and seeing Magnus staring down at me his face twisted in concern.

Every time Extinium shouted a question and I didn't answer the vision of torture would switch. Once it felt as if I was being crushed by some unseen force. Another time it felt as if some molten hot liquid was being poured over my body. Then it felt as if I was being struck by lightning again and again. When he still didn't get the answers he wanted the visions became more extreme. He made it seem as though I was being sawed in half over and over again. Sometimes the blade was searing hot, other times icy cold. Repeatedly he made it feel as if my limbs were being ripped off of my body one by one.

Every time I passed out he was quick to wake me up again and continue with the torment. Even though I wanted to talk now, I couldn't. I was in to much pain to even scream any more. The fact that none of it was real gave me no comfort any longer and I wasn't even sure if it was all just an illusion now.

I wanted so bad to just close my eyes and pass out for at least a few minutes. To just have a few minutes of painlessness where I could pretend I was at home curled up against Magnus in his, our, large bed. To be warm and safe under the yellow comforter, to have Magnus holding me tightly against me. I just wanted to see him again. I wanted it so bad. Just having him hold me one more time, seeing his smile one more time, that was all I wanted now.

I couldn't help but wonder if he was even looking for me. How long had I been here? Where was here? Was there even a chance he would be able to find me? Did he even care enough to try and find me?

I wanted to see him so bad, but after what I had been put through I couldn't help but wonder if he was even coming.

All of a sudden my vision blurred again and I was back in the warehouse. Extinium was standing several feet away bent over with his hands on his knees and panting. My mind was crying in happiness at the chance he had finally run out of magic, but my body was in to much pain for my inner hope to show.

"You, you are one stubborn little piece of shit." Extinium gasped. "But I will break you." He snapped his fingers once and then collapsed onto the floor leaving me hanging above the ground in agony.

At first I hoped the pain would fade away, but it never did. It remained as strong as ever and no matter what I did I couldn't make myself pass out. I watched as the sun set twice and rose once through the one dirty window I could see. My body ached from the unfading pain and need for food and water. Even though I wanted to, I had no hope that Magnus would find me now. I had no hope I would get out of this alive.

After the sun set for the second time Extinium began to stir. He sat up and smiled wickedly at me. He snapped his fingers and a large tray off food appeared in front of him. Slowly he began to eat the food, he chewed slowly and licked his fingers after every bite. I just closed my eyes and began to cry at the thought that the torture was about to begin again even though none of the pain from before had faded even slightly. I wanted so bad to just die and I was cursing my shadowhunter endurance for making me last this long and probably much longer. Why couldn't I just die? Why couldn't he just kill me?


	7. Cold

"Now then," Extinium started as he stood up wiping the crumbs from his meal on his pants, "What is your name?" By now he was only inches from my face the smell of his meal wafting over my face with every breath he took. I didn't answer him, I couldn't. I was in to much pain and I knew if I tried to speak it would come out as nothing more then a scream.

"Alright, I guess if you still don't want to answer we can resume our activities from the beginning of the week." He laughed. Tears continued to roll down my face. I couldn't do this, I couldn't put up with any more torture. If Extinium continued with what he had been doing before I wouldn't last much longer. He was going to kill me. I knew that without a doubt. I was going to die in this abandoned warehouse. Extinium was going to torture me to death, and I knew he was going to enjoy it.

Magnus wasn't coming I knew that now. No one was coming to help me, I was alone. I was going to die completely alone in an abandoned warehouse with no one that I knew and no one coming to look for me. No one coming to rescue me, no one coming to tell me goodbye. I was going to die in here completely alone and no one would care.

So I gave up. Closing my eyes I waited for Extinium to continue the torture he had been inflicting on me previously. Waited for the pain to increase again as he showed me horrible visions of torment and fire and pain. Vaguely I wondered what he would do to me this time. How could he have any other ideas of torment left in his head and other than what he had already done to me? What other tortures had he thought of to inflict on me? What else was he going to put me through before he gave me the mercy of death? How much longer could he make this last? I knew he was powerful but there was no way he could keep me alive without feeding me or giving me water. There was no way he could keep me alive through all the torture. Right?

"Just tell me your name, that's all I want. Just your name. Nothing else. Tell me your name and I'll let you go. I'll stop. I won't hurt you anymore. You just have to answer my questions." Extinium coerced. But I still couldn't answer him. Besides I knew the pain wouldn't stop if I told him my name. Suddenly I started to feel cold.

"Fine then. You now have only two hours to live. The spell I put on you will slowly make you colder and colder until your body shuts down. For every one of my questions you answer I will slow the process slightly. If you answer all of my questions I will stop the process and let you go. Is that clear?" I just nodded. I wanted to go home so bad.

"What's your name?" He began.

"Al-Alec." I answered my voice cracking with pain.

"Alec, short for Alexander?" He inquired, once more I nodded. "You're a shadowhunter?" Once more I nodded. "What are you to my son?"

"I-I don't kn-" I started but before I could finish the pain overtook me again and I started to scream. The pain was no worse then before but when I'd been talking I had forgotten to ignore it as I had before which made it seem worse. Extinium just shook his head and stood with his arms crossed waiting for me to stop.

"What are you-" But before he could continue he dropped to the floor and my vision blurred again. When my vision refocused I saw Jace and Isabelle running towards me. But were they really there or was this just another illusion? My vision had blurred out after all.

Jace reached me before my sister and he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me slightly to take my weight off of my wrists. I watched as my sister turned to the side to grab a crate and dragged it over next to me. As soon as she was close enough she gently unhooked my arms and helped Jace lower me to the ground.

"Alec, can you hear me?" Jace asked as Isabelle cut the ropes on my wrists. I didn't answer him. What was the point since it wasn't real?

"Alec? Alec?" My sister was gently rubbing the side of my face. "Alec talk to me, please." She begged. I could see the worry etched on her features. I watched as Jace waved his hand in front of my face but I didn't bother to follow it with my eyes.

"Damnit, something's really wrong with him. We have to get him back to the institute." Jace mumbled. His face as well was covered in a mask of worry.

"How? We can't risk taking him back through the portal if we don't know what's wrong with him. It could kill him. We're at _least_ one hundred miles from the institute and we don't have a car." Isabelle said exasperatedly.

"You go back and get Iakona and Magnus. I'll stay here with Alec." Jace answered. For a moment my sister looked at my face before she bent down and kissed me on the forehead.

"Be careful, Jace." She said as she stood up and turned to leave. But she stopped as soon as she was standing. "Jace…Extinium is gone."

"What?" Jace shouted as he spun around still in a crouch. "I killed him! I severed his spine, that should've killed him warlock or not!"

"Jace, I can't leave now! If he comes back he could kill both of you." Isabelle said worriedly as she twitched her golden whip.

"You have to, Iz. Alec needs help now. I can handle myself for a few minutes, just go." Jace answered. I knew him well enough that I knew his eyes were more then likely sweeping the entire building. Then again, Extinium didn't know him that well so Jace's eyes were probably just staring forward.

"Fine, but try and hide somewhere." She responded as she ran out the way she came in.

"Come on, Alec. I know you can here me." Jace mumbled as he turned back and picked me up in his arms. When my wrist brushed against Jace I couldn't hold back the whimper of pain that escaped my lips. Gently he shifted so that my legs were resting on top of his bent right leg so that he could examine my wrist. Lightly he brushed his fingers against my wrist after he moved my arm so my hand was resting on my stomach. As he brushed his fingers over my wrist I realized that it was the only pain I felt. The other pains, while still present, had faded almost completely away. I was still cold, but not as much as before.

"Alec, are you hurt anywhere else?" Jace asked after he had finished examining my wrist. I didn't answer. Now that the pain was gone I felt myself getting closer and closer to sleep. But just as my eyes started to slip shut Jace jerked me softly and my eyes opened again.

"You are _not_ falling asleep until I know what's wrong with you." He scolded. I just whimpered and curled in on myself slightly. I just wanted to sleep, what was wrong with that? "If you tell me what's wrong with you I might let you sleep." He said soothingly once he saw my reaction. Was it worth it to talk to him even though he wasn't real? What if I said something that put Magnus in danger and Extinium overheard? I couldn't risk that. "Alec, please." I had never seen Jace look so worried, let alone heard him say please.

Before he could say more I heard running footsteps coming towards us. The sound was loud and I curled against the fake Jace and clutched his shirt in fear of what was coming. Suddenly Magnus was there and pulling me away from Jace. Even though he wasn't real I couldn't help reaching out and grabbing hold of him. I curled against him and started to cry, even if he wasn't real he _felt_ real, he _smelled_ real, he _seemed_ real.

"Shhh, shhh, its okay, baby, its okay." He mumbled into my hair as he gently rocked me back and forth. "You're safe now."

"Jace, has Extinium come back?" An unfamiliar voice asked. Whoever it was had a thick accent though I couldn't tell from where.

"No, I haven't seen him since I stabbed him." Jace answered.

"Do you know what's wrong with Alec?" The unfamiliar voice questioned.

"No, he still hasn't said anything. All I know is his right wrist is broken and he was hanging from the ceiling by his wrists when we got here." Jace told him.

"Right, you and Isabelle go stand near the door so I can heal him." The voice instructed. I figured they complied when I heard two sets of footsteps retreating away from us. Though I was still curled against Magnus I saw whoever the unknown voice belonged to kneel down next to us out of the corner of my eye. His skin was dark, but not black and his hair was dark brown and hung down to just below his shoulders. He had soft grey eyes that were almost hidden behind his hair.

Slowly he wrapped his hand gently around my broken wrist and started murmuring softly. After several seconds the pain faded away.

"Alec, I need you to look at me." He instructed as he gently touched the side of my face. I just curled up more and buried my face even deeper into Magnus's soft shirt. He might've healed my wrist but I still didn't know who he was and I didn't trust him.

"Alec, Iakona won't hurt you." Magnus said as he stroked the side of my face with his hand. So this was Iakona? Reluctantly I turned my face towards him and looked him in the eyes. He smiled softly before he rested his hands on my temples. I didn't really know what he was doing but I could feel his magic flowing though me and into my body. As Iakona did whatever it was that he was doing Magnus continued to run his hand that wasn't holding me off of the floor along my body. He stroked my side, my arms, my legs, every part of me he could reach with me curled up the way I was. I wanted so bad to believe it was real, but I knew it wasn't. Extinium had finally found the best way to torture me, making me think I was finally going home.

"There's some damage to the nerves and blood vessels in his arms from hanging so long, but other then that he isn't hurt. Just dehydrated, hungry and exhausted." Iakona told Magnus as he pulled his hands away. "It's safe to take him back through a portal and safe for him to fall asleep as well. I'll deal with the damage to his arms when we get back to the institute." He finished. I felt Magnus sigh as he hugged me tighter before he gently picked me up and cradled me against him. The gentle rocking movement of his walk had me asleep before we even reached Jace and Isabelle.


	8. Pacing

"Magnus, stop pacing. It won't do you any good." Iakona scolded. He was sitting cross-legged on one of the infirmary beds with a book in his lap. I wanted to smack him. How could he be so calm? Even though he didn't know Alec he knew me, he knew how much I cared about him. He knew I was practically going insane with worry and self-hate. I had called him to help as soon as Alec disappeared and what did he do? Comes, fixes my nose, tries a couple tracking spells and then pulls out a book! That's all he'd done for six days, sit there and read his stupid book. Really helpful.

"Yeah, well calling you apparently didn't do me any good either." I snapped.

Iakona just sighed, closed his book and came to stand in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. He was slightly taller then I was and nowhere near as extravagant. His outfit was a pair of faded jeans, a black t-shirt, a brown leather jacket and some brown work boots. His dark brown hair had tints of red when you looked at it in the right light and hung to just below his shoulders, his eyes were a strange grey-blue that I had only seen in other warlocks.

"Magnus, you know I love you, but if you keep acting like this I'm going to have to kick some sense into you. I know you care about Alec, your constant rambling about him every time you call me proved that to me awhile ago. But you need to keep control of yourself. You've already lost control of your magic once in the past week and you've come dangerously close to losing it again at least three times in the past six days. If you lose control again you won't live through it." Iakona told me. He was constantly bluntly honest with me and it had always come as a relief to know I had at least one person who wouldn't lie to me.

"But you haven't even done anything to help, Kona. I called you here to help me find him and all you've done is read that stupid book." I mumbled. He just smiled softly.

"Haven't you been paying any attention?" He laughed. "Do you even realize what book it is I've been "reading" so intently?"

"Umm…no." I told him honestly.

"It's my map book. The one I made to be able to track people who had anti-tracking spells on them. Remember? You were the one who gave me the idea for it." He chuckled.

"Oh." I answered lamely. I really was out of it.

"Just be patient with me, okay? I'll find him." He said as he pulled me into a tight hug. I hugged him back and felt at least a small amount of tension melt away from the embrace and the realization that he really had been trying to find Alec.

Out embrace was interrupted by a very out of breath Isabelle pushing open the door to the infirmary so hard it crashed against the wall and made the room shake slightly.

"We found Alec, but something's wrong with him." She panted. Instantly my whole body was tense and I could feel the small amount of magic I had left begin to swirl around inside me.

"What do you mean something's wrong with him?" Iakona asked taking control of the situation as he always did.

"I don't know, he didn't look hurt, but he wouldn't respond to us even though he was awake." Isabelle answered as she leaned against the wall with one of her hands pressed against her side.

"Where is he?" Iakona pressed.

"Some warehouse near the water on the edge of town. I can't tell you exactly where, we used a portal and a picture from the internet to take us there." She told him.

"Do you have the picture?" Iakona inquired. Isabelle just nodded and pulled the picture out of one of her pockets which she quickly handed to him. After he had examined the picture he handed it to me and began chanting the spell to open a portal. Quickly it shimmered to life and we all stepped through.

The place we arrived in was a dismal ruin of a warehouse and a thick layer of fog hung in the air eerily illuminated by the nearly full moon. As soon as we were all standing in front of the warehouse Isabelle quickly lead us through small door that looked dangerously close to falling off of its hinges. Inside it was so dark that if it wasn't for my cat eyes I wouldn't have been able to see anything. But I did see something, Jace's back and it looked like he had Alec cradled in his arms. As soon as I saw them I broke out into a run with the others on my heels.

The second I reached Jace I fell to my knees infrount of him and pulled Alec from his grasp not caring if Jace didn't want me to. Alec was shaking and tears were falling down his face as he curled against me grabbing onto my shirt like he was afraid I was going to disappear.

"Shhh, shhh, its okay, baby, its okay." I mumbled into his soft hair. As I gently ran my hand along him I realized how cold he was, his skin was almost icy to the touch. But his clothes, still the ones I had dressed him in, were drenched with sweat though thankfully there was no blood. His wrists were rubbed raw and his right one was swollen and even redder then the left. I could feel his heart racing as I brushed my hand against his neck.

I didn't even bother to listen as Iakona talked to Jace. I was too worried about Alec. My Alec who I'd never seen shed a tear save the time his brother died. No matter how much pain he was in, Alec never cried. Sometimes he got mad, but he never cried.

I was pulled back to reality when Iakona asked Alec to look at him and he just turned his face farther into my shirt curling himself into a ball.

"Alec, Iakona won't hurt you." I said gently resting my hand on the side of his face. After a few seconds Alec turned his head towards Iakona but remained curled up. Iakona smiled softly before he gently rested his hand on Alec's temples and began to examine him for any injuries. After several minutes he pulled his hands away and told me that Alec had no serious injuries. I sighed in relief and pulled Alec even closer to me before I picked him up and began to walk towards Jace and Isabelle who had gone to stand near the door. As soon as we reached them Iakona opened another portal and we all walked through back into the infirmary.

When we arrived we found Maryse, Robert, Clary, Luke and Jocelyn waiting for us. As Maryse ran towards us I sat down on one of the beds with Alec still cradled against me. There was no way in heaven or hell that I was going to put him down.

"O' god, Alec." Maryse sobbed her hands fluttering above Alec as if she was afraid to touch him.

"Relax, Maryse. He isn't seriously injured." Iakona said as he gently moved her to the side. "I do need you and the others to go out in the hall though so I can heal the injuries he does have." Maryse looked torn her eyes dashing between Iakona and her son before she sighed and hurried into the hall with everyone else.

As soon as they were gone Iakona set to work repairing the damage that had resulted from Alec being hung from the ceiling by his wrists for however long he had. It had always amazed me how skilled Iakona was when it came to healing magic considering he sucked at any other type of magic he attempted. He was known to most of the world for the healing spells he had come up with himself. Though most of the spells he came up with himself he did his best to keep secret only telling me about them and no one else, like the one he was using now.

He had his hands resting on Alec's shoulders with his fingers about an inch into his arm as he reworked the damaged blood vessels and nerves. The spell allowed him to literally phase his hands into the injured person's body so that he could get as close to the damage as possible. This allowed him to know exactly what was wrong and where which enabled him to fix injuries much quicker and better. The person he was working on felt nothing more then a slight pressure when Iakona used this spell.

"He'll be sore for a few days, but there isn't any permanent damage." Iakona told me as he pulled his hands out of Alec's shoulders and snapped his fingers causing a loaf of bread to appear. Iakona cut off a small piece and proceeded to break it down before he phased it into Alec's stomach along with a small amount of water.

"So he'll be okay?" I asked. Iakona just sighed as he looked at me with sad eyes. We both knew what my father had likely done to Alec in that warehouse.

"He'll be okay physically. We can keep feeding him using magic until he wakes up." Iakona told me. I just nodded once more burying my face in Alec's hair as I attempted to hold back the tears threatening to fall from my eyes. Given that Alec had no physical injuries it was obvious what Extinium had done to him and I was terrified I was still going to lose him because of that.

I paid no attention as the others swarmed back around us. I was content to just sit and gently rock Alec. Even though he was asleep his face wasn't peaceful, still it was slightly twisted with the remnants of fear and pain. I wanted so bad to just wake him up so I could see his blue eyes, maybe even see him smile. But he needed to rest, I knew that. After awhile everyone but Jace left.

"How did you find him?" I asked quietly.

"After he disappeared we had Clary start looking online for abandoned warehouses and shops nearby. Every one she found she printed a picture of for us from some place called "Google Maps". Izzy and I used the pictures to go to every place Clary found to see if Alec was there. We checked at least fifty before we found him. When we found him today Izzy used Clary's portal ruin to come get you and Iakona." Jace explained. Any other time I would've laughed at the fact that he had no idea what Google Maps was, but I could've seen a ten foot tall purple bear in a pink tutu with clown make-up on and not laughed right now.

"Thank you." I whispered.

"Wow, you telling me thank you! That's a first." He mumbled. I didn't even have the energy to glare at him right now.

"Go get some sleep, Jace. Before I decide to kill you."

He just rolled his eyes and walked out of the infirmary presumably to his, or Clary's, room.


	9. Reality

It had been almost two days now since we had found Alec and he had yet to wake up. I still hadn't put him down for more then two minutes and when I did have to let go of him it felt like a part of me was being ripped away. Even though Jace had wanted to write the rune to keep Alec from dreaming on his arm I wouldn't let him. I was afraid what even that small amount of pain could do to him so instead I told Iakona to use a spell to keep him from dreaming.

"Magnus, are you okay?" Iakona asked quietly so that I was the only one who heard. Currently I was lying on one of the infirmary beds with my arms circled around Alec and his head tucked beneath my chin.

"I'm scared." I wouldn't admit it to anyone else, well maybe to Alec, but I would admit it to Iakona.

"Of?" He pressed gently.

"What's gonna happen when he wakes up." I told him truthfully.

"We'll figure it out, no matter what happens." He assured me.

"I hope you're right, Kona." I sighed.

"I'm _always_ right." He smiled.

"Well..." I started.

"If you value your life you will not finish that sentence." Iakona teased. I just smiled though I knew it probably didn't reach my eyes.

At around nine o'clock everyone else left going to sleep in their various rooms. Iakona stayed in the infirmary sleeping on one of the beds across the room. I still wasn't fond of going to sleep and risk having Alec wake up while I was out. But I was too exhausted to resist the pull of sleep for long.

Sometime in the night I awoke though I couldn't figure out why. As far as I could tell there was nothing that should've woken me up from the deep sleep I'd been in. So I lay there for awhile waiting for sleep to reclaim me. Just as I was about to fall back into the currently not so peaceful world of my dreams I felt Alec shift slightly against me.

"Alec, darling? Can you hear me?" I asked as I gently brushed my fingers along his face. "Alec?" His only response was to whimper slightly and shift around a little more.

Carefully I moved so that I was propped up on one elbow and looking down at Alec.

"Come on, love. Open those beautiful eyes of yours." I coaxed. After several more minutes of gentle coaxing and stroking his eyes finally fluttered open. "It's okay beautiful, its okay." I told him when his eyes started to dart around wildly. Once he heard my voice his eyes focused on my face and he let out another whimper. Suddenly he wrapped his arms around me tightly and started to sob.

"It's okay, beautiful, its okay. You're safe now." I soothed as I wrapped him up and ran my hand along his back. For awhile we just lay there and eventually his sobbing subsided to soundless tears. I knew Iakona was awake, I'd seen him sit up for several minutes, but he remained on the other side of the room.

"Are you alright, baby?" I asked as I looked him in the eyes. His eyes were slightly glazed over and shimmering with tears.

He just looked at me, he was still shaking slightly. "I wa-wanna go home." He chocked out. His voice was scratchy and hard to make out so at first I wasn't quite sure what he had said.

"Alec, darling, you are home." I said quietly.

"No." He shook his head. "I wan-wanna go to the fl-flat." For a moment I didn't respond, since when did he consider the flat home?

"Okay, love." I eventually responded. Slowly I sat up pulling him with me. "Kona, can you open a portal for us?" When Alec realized that someone else was in the room he flinched slightly and pressed himself into me. I responded by holding him even tighter and softly kissing his forehead.

"I'll stay here and tell the others where you two are when they wake up." Iakona said after the portal shimmered to life.

"Thanks." I responded as I gently picked Alec up and walked through the portal with him in my arms. We came out in our room and I gently laid him on the bed and sat down next to him tenderly running my hand along his thigh.

"Better?" I asked, he had finally stopped shaking. He just nodded and sniffed moving his hand to wipe the last few tears from his eyes. "Are you hungry?"

"Ye-yeah." His voice was still scratchy and hard to understand.

"Anything in particular that you want, love?" I inquired.

"Not really." He mumbled. I just sighed and snapped my fingers causing Alec's favorite soup to appear on a tray with a tall glass of water and several breadsticks. I helped Alec sit up and put several pillows behind him. Once I was sure he was comfortable I placed the tray over his lap then slid in next to him. As he ate the food I lightly traced small patterns on the exposed strip of skin on his stomach. After he was done I took the tray and set it on the floor before I wrapped him back up in my arms.

"Do you want to talk?" I whispered.

"No." He shook slightly and several tears rolled down his face.

"Okay, okay." I soothed. Once he had calmed back down I continued talking, "Does anything hurt?"

"N-not really." He mumbled snuggling closer.

"Not really?" I questioned.

"I'm just, just kind of, kind of s-sore."

"Taking a warm shower might help." I suggested.

"…will you take it with me?" He asked after several seconds looking up at me pleadingly.

"Of coarse I will, love." I replied as I picked him up again and carried him into the bathroom. I set him down on the edge of tub and quickly started the water running it warm but not hot. Alec slowly started to take off his shirt but cringed in pain when he tried to raise his arms.

"Ow." He whimpered. I quickly turned back to him and pulled him into my arms.

"Are you okay, darling?" He just groaned slightly and rested his head against my shoulder.

"Ye-yeah." He was shaking slightly again. I snapped my fingers to remove his shirt ignoring the slight pain that lanced up my arm from using a spell more complex then I was currently capable of. As soon as his shirt was off he pulled away slightly and took his pants and boxers off. It was a testament to how much he trusted me that he was still comfortable stripping down in front of me. Before I helped him into the tub I stripped off my own clothes and tossed them into the hamper.

The bathtub, like everything else I owned, was extravagant. It was large enough to hold at least five people and was surrounded by a glass wall with a sliding door. There were five shower heads mounted in the ceiling spaced evenly in a circle.

Carefully I helped Alec into the nearly full tub and climbed in behind him before I switched the flow of water from the faucet to the shower heads. Once I was settled in next to him I reached over and gently began to rub the tension out of his shoulders. He moaned softly and shifted so that he was sitting between my legs allowing me more access to the rest of his back. After about half an hour of gentle rubbing and a simple spell to keep the water warm Alec spoke again.

"Magnus?" He started. His voice had cleared up considerably more then likely due to the steam that enveloped us.

"Yes, beautiful?" I replied as I worked out a particularly tough knot in left side.

"This, this is all real right?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth I stopped what I was doing I slid around to face him. He looked like he was on the verge of tears again.

"Alec, this is _completely_ real." I assured him cupping his face in my hands.

"How do I know he isn't making you say that?" He sobbed. For a moment I was at a loss for what to say. How could I assure him that this was real?

"Because, if Extinium was still in your head he wouldn't be able to make me tell you things that he didn't know about right?" I told him after several minutes of thought.

"Ri-right." He hiccupped.

"So he wouldn't be able to make me tell you about the time you stayed the night and I made you waffles for breakfast and eventually ended up covering you in syrup, right?" I smiled at the memory. That had been a very fun morning. Once he realized what I had said and thought about it for a moment he fell forward into my arms and started sobbing again but this time in relief.

"I, I love you." He choked out.

"I love you to, darling." I responded instantly. This time his sobbing only lasted for a couple minutes before he calmed down. "Are you okay, love?"

"Yeah. I-I'm alright." He sighed.

"Good." I smiled down at him. He smiled back and it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I couldn't help but lean down and press my lips against his. He responded instantly by tilting his head to deepen the kiss and tangling his fingers in my soaking hair.

Carefully I flicked my tongue out against his bottom lip, I didn't want to risk pushing him to far right now. He moaned slightly and parted his lips gliding his tongue against mine. I shifted so he was under me with his head resting on the side of the tub. We continued kissing passionately our tongues battling against each other until we ran out of air and had to break apart.

"Magnus, I want to go farther, please?" Alec practically begged.

"As far as you want, beautiful." I responded before I pressed my lips back against his and started to run my hands along his outer thighs. He moaned softly and slid his hands from my hair to my hips. Slowly I worked my way down his face and to his rock hard nipples which I began to tease with my teeth. He groaned and arched up against me causing his already hard length to brush against mine.

"Magnus, please, I wa-" His sentence was interrupted by a whimper of pleasure as one of my hands brushed the inside of his thighs.

"Yes, love?" I inquired as I nibbled on his ear.

"I want you inside me." He groaned as he arched into me again.

"Anything you desire my beautiful little Shadowhunter." I answered as I licked down his face and neck to suck on his collar bone. He cried out in pleasure as I slid one of my fingers inside his slick entrance. I wiggled it around knowing exactly what movements would make him cry out in pleasure before I added another finger and began to stretch him.

"Ma-Magnus, ple-please. I ne-need you." He panted as I added a third finger.

"Not as much as I need you." I whispered into his ear before I pulled my fingers away and slid inside him. He groaned and bucked against me. It felt amazing to be back inside him again, to know I _really_ had him back. To know he was mine again.

I started a slow rhythm only pulling out of him slightly before I pressed back in.

"Magnus, fa-faster." He whined. I just smiled and started to move faster pulling myself out farther before I dove back in. Alec pulled my face to his and started to kiss me roughly as I thrust into him.

"You-you're so, beautiful, Alec." I panted. I could feel him tightening around me and I knew he was close. I gently grabbed his length and began to pump in time with my thrusts. It didn't take long for Alec to cum in my hand crying out in pleasure as he rode out his orgasm while I continued to thrust into him in search of my own release. Finally I came inside Alec several seconds later with a cry of pleasure matching his own.

For several seconds we just lay there panting and staring at each other with me still buried inside of him.

"I love you." He whispered and kissed me gently.

"I love you to, Alec. I love you so much."


	10. Haze

At first everything was hazy and I had no idea what was going on. I could hear someone talking softly but I couldn't make out their words. Beneath me I could feel something soft, probably a bed, but I was terrified to open my eyes knowing I would be back in the warehouse. Eventually the words started to become clearer though I still had no idea who was talking.

"Alec, open your eyes for me, please open your eyes." The person mumbled. It seemed like I had cotton stuffed in my ears. I cracked open my eyes frightened that Extinium would somehow torment me worse then before if I didn't listen.

But I wasn't in the warehouse. I didn't know where I was or who it was that was leaning over me. My eyes darted around franticly trying to figure out what was going on.

"It's okay, beautiful, its okay. You're safe now." The person above me soothed. It was Magnus I realized as I let my eyes focus on his face. I'd never seen him look the way he did now, huge bags under his eyes and his hair didn't look like he'd even combed it since the night at the club.

I started sobbing and wrapped my arms around him desperate to prove to myself that this was real. If this was still in illusion and I woke up back in that warehouse it would kill me, I knew that for certain.

We lay there for a long time and I never once loosened my grip on him. He did nothing more then hold me to him just as tightly and murmur calming words into my ear while one of his hands stroked my back.

"Are you alright, baby?" He whispered once my sobbing stopped.

"I wa-wanna go home." I didn't even recognize the sound of my own voice. I just wanted to get out of this huge open room and go curl up under the bright yellow comforter in our flat. The entire institute was to open with way to many places for people to hide.

Magnus just looked at me for a moment with a confused expression on his face, "Alec, darling, you are home." He said quietly his hand still running gently along the length of my spine.

"No." I shook my head. "I wan-wanna go to the fl-flat." For a moment he didn't respond, he just looked more confused.

"Okay, love." He eventually responded. Carefully he sat up pulling me with him and onto his lap. "Kona, can you open a portal for us?"

When I realized there was someone else in the room I flinched and pushed myself even closer to Magnus. He hugged me tighter and softly kissed my forehead. The simple little kiss calmed me down immensely.

I didn't even pay attention to what the other person was saying as Magnus picked me up and walked through the portal. We came out in our bedroom and he gently set me down on the bed and stroked my thigh.

"Better?" He asked. Was I better? As far as I could tell I was really home and it really was Magnus sitting there with a very worried expression on his face. After a minute I nodded and wiped the remaining tears from my eyes. "Are you hungry?" He inquired.

"Ye-yeah." I mumbled, I could barely understand my own voice.

"Anything in particular that you want, love?" He questioned.

"Not really." I mumbled. At this point as long as it was edible I couldn't care less what it was. He just sighed and snapped his fingers causing my favorite soup to appear on a tray with a tall glass of water and several breadsticks. My mouth started watering the second I saw it. He helped me sit up and put several pillows behind me. Once he was satisfied I was comfortable he placed the tray over my lap and slid in next to me. As I ate the food he lightly traced small patterns on the exposed strip of skin on my stomach. The feeling was comforting and I found myself wishing he would never stop. After I was done he took the tray and set it on the floor before he wrapped me back up in his arms.

"Do you want to talk?" He whispered as he continued to trace random designs on my skin.

"No." I felt my self shake slightly and several tears rolled down my face.

"Okay, okay." He soothed pressing his lips against my forehead again. Once he was sure I had calmed back down he continued talking, "Does anything hurt?"

"N-not really." I mumbled snuggling closer to him.

"Not really?" He questioned.

"I'm just, just kind of, kind of s-sore."

"Taking a warm shower might help." He suggested.

"…will you take it with me?" I asked after several seconds. Extinium might've only drowned me once, but I was not fond of the idea of getting a tub full of water alone.

"Of coarse I will, love." He replied before he gently picked me up again and carried me into the bathroom. He set me down on the edge of tub and quickly started the water running it warm but not hot.

I went to remove my shirt but when I tried to lift my arms pain shot through my shoulders and my back.

"Ow." I whimpered as I tried to restrain the tears threatening to fall again. Instantly Magnus had his arms wrapped back around me.

"Are you okay, darling?" He asked worriedly.

"Ye-yeah." I responded. He cuddled me for a few more seconds before he snapped his fingers and caused my shirt to disappear. Gently I pulled away and stripped off the rest of my clothing and dropped it onto the floor. He did the same but threw his clothes into the hamper. As soon as he was satisfied with how much water was currently in the tub he helped me turn around and slide in before he got in next to me.

The warm water alone was enough to make me sigh in contentment but then it got even better as Magnus began to work the knots out of my shoulders with his strong fingers. I moved so that I was between his legs hoping that he would rub out the tension in the rest of my back as well. As soon as he was sure he had gotten all of the knots in my shoulders he did what I had hoped and started to work his hands lower. It was hard not to just pass out in his arms, this felt amazing.

"Magnus?" I asked suddenly. I had to know, I had to know if this was real. Just asking wouldn't hurt right? Extinium couldn't use a simple question like that to harm Magnus.

"Yes, beautiful?" He replied as he kneaded away a knot in my left side.

"This, this is all real right?" The second he heard what I had said he stopped what he was doing and slid around to face me. I could tell I was on the verge of tears again. But I couldn't help it. I was scared that asking the question might break the illusion if it was one.

"Alec, this is completely real." He assured as he cupped my face in his soft hands.

"How do I know he isn't making you say that?" I sobbed. For a moment Magnus looked like he was at a loss for what to say. His face was a mix of concentration and worry as he tried to come up with an answer.

"Because, if Extinium was still in your head he wouldn't be able to make me tell you things that he didn't know about right?" He said after a minute.

"Ri-right." I hiccupped.

"So he wouldn't be able to make me tell you about the time you stayed the night and I made you waffles for breakfast and eventually ended up covering you in syrup, right?" He smiled slightly. I thought about what he said for a moment. Every second I sat there quietly his expression became more and more worried.

"I, I love you." I chocked out finally as I fell forward into his arms sobbing in relief. There was no way anyone else knew about that morning except for the two of us. There was no way Extinium could've had Magnus tell me that if this was an illusion.

"I love you to, darling." He responded instantly. My sobs subsided quickly this time but I stayed where I was content to just have Magnus hold me while the showerheads rained warm water down on us. "Are you okay, love?"

"Yeah. I-I'm alright." I sighed.

"Good." He smiled down at me. His smile was wide and caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle. Magnus looked absolutely adorable with that expression and his wet hair flopping in his face. I smiled back and he quickly pressed his lips to mine. His mouth on mine felt amazing, it felt so right, so good after what had happened. I couldn't get enough of the taste of his lips so I tilted my head and snaked my fingers into his hair to deepen the kiss.

Suddenly I felt him flick his tongue against my bottom lip and I greedily opened my mouth and pushed me tongue against his. As we each battled for dominance he leaned me back so that my head was resting on the edge of the tub and straddled me. It didn't take long for me to get hard, I wanted him so bad. I needed him right now. I wanted to forget everything that had happened even if it only lasted a few minutes.

"Magnus, I want to go farther, please?" I practically begged as soon as he broke away for air. I was desperate to feel him inside me again.

"As far as you want, beautiful." He responded before he pressed his lips back against mine and started to run his hands along my outer thighs. I moaned out of pure bliss. He continued to tease me by working his way down to my chest with his lips leaving a trail of hot kisses. Once he reached my nipples he began to suck and play with them.

"Magnus, please, I wa-" My sentence was interrupted by a whimper of pleasure as one of Magnus's hands brushed the inside of my thighs. What was it with him and teasing me?

"Yes, love?" He inquired as he nibbled on my ear.

"I want you inside me." I groaned as I arched into him again.

"Anything you desire my beautiful little Shadowhunter." He answered as he proceeded to lick down my face and neck to suck on my collar bone, one of his favorite spots and mine as well. I cried out in pleasure as he slid one of his fingers inside me. He wiggled it around knowing exactly what movements would make me cry out in delight before he smoothly added another finger and began to stretch me. We made love so often though that it wasn't really necessary for him to prepare me as much as seemed intent on doing.

"Ma-Magnus, ple-please. I ne-need you." I panted as he added a third finger.

"Not as much as I need you." He whispered into my ear before he pulled his fingers away and positioned himself at my entrance. He sucked on the side of my neck as he pushed inside me. I was already moaning in pleasure before he even started to move. He was really here, he was really making love to me. I knew there was no way the amazing feeling of him inside me could be an illusion.

He started a slow rhythm just barely pulling out before he pressed back inside me.

"Magnus, fa-faster." I whined. He chuckled slightly and increased his pace pulling out even farther before he pressed back inside. I groaned and pulled his face back to mine before I started to kiss him roughly. He moaned against my lips and increased his pace even more.

"You-you're so, beautiful, Alec." He panted. I was close, so close. Magnus wrapped his hand around my length and started to stroke me in time with his thrusts. It didn't take long for my orgasm to hit me, my cum mixing with the warm water that would've mostly been sloshed onto the floor if not for the glass wall. Seconds later I felt Magnus come inside me but he didn't pull away once he rode out his orgasm.

For several seconds we just lay there panting and staring at each other with him still buried inside of me.

"I love you." I whispered as I kissed him gently.

"I love you to, Alec. I love you so much." He replied before he pulled out of me and drew me into his arms.

We lay there for awhile enjoying the feeling of each others skin. I was on the verge of sleep when suddenly I remembered something,

"Magnus?" I asked. His only response was to hum slightly his eyes remaining closed. "How long was I gone?"

He opened his eyes and looked down at me then let out a soft sigh before he answered, "Six days. You slept for a little over two days once we got you home."

"Okay." I replied. I could tell Magnus had been expecting me to break down again but it didn't really bother me that much. Not after what Magnus and I had just done.

"Ready for bed?" He asked.

"Yeah." I mumbled once more on the verge of sleep. He laughed quietly before his lifted me out of the tub and wrapped me in a soft towel. As soon as he dried both of us off he lifted me up again and carried me to the bed.

I fell asleep quickly curled against Magnus, both of us still wearing absolutely nothing.


	11. Jump

I woke up at about two in the afternoon which meant I'd slept about ten hours. A fact that quite surprised me, I had thought Alec would have nightmares. But as far as I could tell he had slept through the night. He even looked liked he'd slept well. The dark circles and red puffiness were gone from his eyes and all the pain had been erased from his face. His lips were even twisted in a small smile. He looked like he did every other morning when I woke up to find him still asleep, peaceful and content.

The serene look on his face made me want to let him sleep forever so he wouldn't have to wake up and deal with what had happened. So I just lay there rememorizing the planes of his still naked body as he breathed easily with his body tucked against mine. I had met and dated so many nameless, faceless people in my life I had almost forgotten what real beauty looked like, what it felt like to hold real beauty in my arms. But Alec had brought that feeling back, and the fact he didn't realize how beautiful he was made him even more exquisite. His entire body was perfectly sculpted and toned just right. He was the most stunning thing to ever come into existence, human or otherwise. Though what I loved most about him was currently hidden as he slept. Not that I didn't have enough pictures of him with his eyes open adorning my room, but pictures just couldn't compare to the real thing. Nothing could compare to the real thing.

"Mmm…good morning, Magnus." Alec said sleepily as he cracked his eyes open allowing just a small sliver of blue to show through his lashes.

"Good morning, darling." I replied as I stroked his face to chase away several stray hairs from his forehead. "Did you sleep well?"

"Actually, yeah, I slept really well." He replied leaning into my touch.

"Good. Do you want something to eat? I'd ask if you want breakfast but considering it's the middle of the afternoon it would seem a little odd." He laughed quietly at this before he replied,

"How about you make waffles?" He requested his eyes twinkling slightly. I couldn't help the silly grin that spread across my face.

"I can do that." I told him as I gently pulled away to stand up. "Be right back." I whispered in his ear before I strode to my closet to grab something to wear. I could feel his eyes tracing down my back as I walked away and it made a pleasant shiver run down my spine. Quickly I grabbed two pairs of sweats and a couple t-shirts before I turned back into the room. I found Alec petting a very content Chairmen Meow who had taken up residence on Alec's chest.

"Apparently I wasn't the only one who missed you." I chuckled as I sat down and scratched my fuzzball behind his ears.

"Apparently." He replied. After a moment I picked up my cat and set him on the floor which resulted in a bout of hissing and several scratches on my leg. Not that I could blame him, I'd do the same thing if someone took me away from Alec right now.

"Here, love." I handed him the black sweats and the black t-shirt with silver paint splatters on it.

"No underwear?" He questioned.

"They'd be pointless." I whispered against his ear relishing in the small shiver that went through his body.

After we had both dressed we stepped out of the bedroom to find Iakona crashed on the couch with the TV still on as he slept. Why he didn't go use the perfectly good TV in the guest room, which was basically his room and contained a very nice and expensive bed was beyond me.

"Give me a second, Beautiful." I whispered as I pulled away. He nodded and watched as I walked over to my brother. Gently I pulled his boots and jacket off amazed that I hadn't woken him, he was normally a light sleeper. After I had pulled off as much of his unnecessary clothing as I could I put a pillow under his head and pulled a blanket over him. Once I was satisfied I walked back to Alec and we walked into the kitchen. As the door closed behind us I felt Alec jump slightly when it clicked into place.

"Go grab the sugar for me, Sugar?" I said playfully. He just rolled his eyes and smiled as he walked away to sift through my very unorganized-to-anyone-but-me cabinets and pantry. While he searched for the sugar I pulled out the other ingredients we needed and sat them on the counter.

After fixing and enjoying the waffles we both went back into the living room where I coaxed a half awake Iakona into his room so that Alec and I could use the TV. Eventually Alec started to doze off with his head resting on my shoulder. But right as he was about to slip into slumber the doorbell rang and he was awakened completely. The shrill sound startled him and he shrunk into my side.

"I'll be right back, Love. Will you be alright?" I asked. He just nodded and pulled away from me so I could stand up. As soon as I was out my door and into the hall I stomped angrily to the stairs which I proceeded to clomp down making as much of a racket as possible. Whoever was on the other side of the door was going to be dead in five seconds. I yanked open the door intent on killing whoever was on the other side but stopped when I saw Alec's family on the other side.

"What took you so long? We knocked at least five times." Jace stated haughtily.

"Number one, do you honestly think I can hear you knock from upstairs? And number two, if you ever ring that doorbell again, I will slaughter you." I ground out through clenched teeth.

"Well then how are we supposed to let you know we're here?" He retorted.

"Maybe I don't want to know when you are here, Jace." I hissed. I was fine with letting the rest of Alec's family live, but killing Jace was becoming more and more enticing with every word he said.

"Okay, that's enough you two. We already know you hate each other." Isabelle said tiredly as she stepped between us. "Can we come see Alec please?"

"Yeah, you can come see him." I told her as I stepped aside to let them in.

"Is he doing okay?" Maryse asked as we ascended the stairs.

"He's doing better then I though he would be. He's still pretty worn out and a little jumpy but other then that he's fine." I answered. Once we reached the door I knocked softly to let Alec know I was coming back inside before I opened the door and closed it quietly behind his family once they entered.

"Alec!" Maryse sobbed and she ran over and wrapped her arms around her eldest son. She didn't even seem to notice that Alec cringed away from the sound of her shout and her rapid movement. I was tempted to slap the women but held back only because I knew it would upset Alec.

"I'm okay, Mom." He mumbled awkwardly. He looked like he would do just about anything to get his mother to let him out of her death grip.

"Alec really does need to rest; you're all welcome to come back later when he's had a chance to get some more sleep." I intervened for him. He shot me a grateful look once his mother pulled away.

"Okay, well please call us when it's a good time to come back." Maryse said dejectedly.

"We will." I assured her. As she stood up to leave Isabelle came over and gave him a quick hug, Jace walked over and squeezed his hand gently after which Alec's dad came over and tousled his son's hair affectionately.

"I'm glad we got you back safe." Robert said before he turned to follow his wife and daughter out the door. Jace remained standing near the doorway until the others were gone before he looked back over to Alec.

"Call me if you need to talk, doesn't matter what time it is." He told Alec.

"Thanks, Jace." Jace just nodded before he followed the rest of his family. As soon as he was gone I locked the door and went back to Alec. The moment I wrapped him back in my arms I realized he was shaking.

"Darling, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly. He just shook his head and took a deep, shaky breath. "Alec, please, let me help you." I pleaded.

"They, they were just too…" He didn't seem to be able to form a sentence at the moment.

"Loud? Close?" I asked. He nodded meekly and a few tears escaped his tightly shut eyes. "I'm sorry, if I'd known it would upset you this much I would've told them to leave and come back later.

"It's not your fault." Alec mumbled, he was still shaking. Damnit, he'd been doing so well. I knew it was pretty much inevitable that he would break down but I had hoped we could get at least one day of peace and pseudo-normalcy in.

"Alec, you can tell me anything, no matter what it is." I promised him.

"I know." He mumbled.

"Then why aren't you telling me anything?" I practically begged.

"I-I'm scared." He choked out.

"I'll protect you, Darling, I'll always protect you." I assured him as I snuggled him against me and wrapped the two of us in the large, fuzzy, fleece blanket.

"It, it's just, everything scares me. Every noise makes me jump. Anything that moves fast makes me jump and I just, just can't take it. I can't take being so scared anymore." He sobbed. I held him to me with my lips pressed softly against his forehead and I ran one of my hands along his arm.

"Alec, Iakona and I own a house up in Canada. It's very quiet there, there isn't anyone else around for miles, and he doesn't know where it is. If you want, we can go stay there for awhile." I told him once his sobbing had subsided enough that he wasn't gasping for breath.

"Re-really?" He asked. I hated seeing tears in his eyes again.

"Really. Do you want to go?" I asked. He just nodded. I smiled slightly and pushed my lips softly against his. "I'll go pack then."


	12. Scream

It had been a week now since I had brought Alec up to Iakona and I's cabin in the thick, amazingly beautiful Canadian forests. But despite what I had assumed when I had originally proposed the idea, Alec hadn't gotten better. He had gotten worse. He wouldn't go outside, wouldn't go near windows, slept with the lights on, and regardless of how strong an anti-dream spell Iakona or I put on him he still woke up screaming. But worst of all was the fact that he wouldn't talk to me, wouldn't let me help him. It had even gotten to the point that I had tried to convince him to talk to Iakona just so he would talk to someone.

And all this, all this pain and torment Alec, my Alec, was going through was because of that bastard. It was all because of Extinium. Extinium had done this to Alec, he had tortured him to a point that I was starting to believe he would never recover from. I might've gotten Alec back but because of what he'd been put through I was terrified I would still lose him.

"Magnus?" Iakona whispered quietly, he probably thought I was sleeping considering the way I was sprawled out on the library couch with my arm tossed over my face.

"What?" My voice sounded disgusting, the product of way to many sleepless nights.

"I just wanted to talk to you…about Alec."

"What about him?" I glared, Kona had already voiced his views several times and I was not in the mood to have them reiterated once again.

"Has he said anything at all to you? Even one little thing?" Well this was a new direction, at least it sounded like it.

"The only thing he's told me while he was awake was that he can't get it out of his head and everything makes him jump, scares him. But he talks in his sleep a lot. I can't always make it out but he says things about wanting to go home, wanting the fire to stop, not being able to breathe and he says my name a lot." I answered. "Has he said anything to you?" I questioned, still clinging to the hope that Alec had taken my advice and talked to Iakona.

"You know he wouldn't talk to me, Magnus, he scarcely knows me. Do you know if he's talked to Jace or Isabelle maybe?"

"No, he won't touch his cell phone or the landline for that matter." I told him. "Where is this going, Kona?"

"It's just…I've been thinking that maybe, maybe we should…don't get mad at me, but maybe we should wipe his memory." I could tell from the look on Kona's face that he didn't think I would like this idea.

"What do you mean by wipe his memory?" I asked trying to figure out exactly what my brother wanted to do.

"Well, I've been thinking about it and if we just wipe the part between when he was grabbed and when we rescued him, it shouldn't cause any problems. He won't have any missing memories that are crucial to what happened and he definitely does not need the memories of what happened when Extinium was doing whatever it was he did to him." Iakona elaborated.

It honestly didn't sound like such a bad idea. It would give Alec a chance to get back to normal, for everything to get back to normal. But would it even work? Our anti-dream spells didn't work, how could we be sure a memory spell would?

"What if it doesn't work, Kona? The dream spells don't work." I voiced my fears aloud.

"We'll, the spell I've been thinking about using is different then most memory spells. It doesn't just hide the memories, it destroys them so the spell only has to be done once and the memories can never come back." He told me.

"Have you used the spell before?" There was no way I would even consider letting Kona use this spell on Alec if he'd never done it before.

"Multiple times, I've never had any problems." It was easy to tell he wasn't lying, Kona sucked at lying even more then he sucked at most magic and that was saying something.

"How do you know you're erasing the right memories?"

"Well, I establish a connection between my mind and the person whose memories I'm erasing's mind, after I put them into a deeply unconscious state. Once I make the connection I can "play" their memories in my own mind. Then when I find something that needs to be erased I destroy the small part of the brain that holds those memories with a small electric shock. The person doesn't feel anything and it never causes any problems for them, they don't even see the memories when I'm playing them in my mind." He explained.

"…Fine, but only if he wants you to, I won't let you do it if he doesn't want you to." I answered after several minutes of deliberation.

"That's perfectly fine, but if you're going to do it, do it soon. He's already getting sick from lack of sleep and not eating well, the sooner we figure something out the better."

"Yeah." I mumbled as I stood up and walked out into the cozy den tucked in between the living room and the library. Alec was curled up on the couch asleep, he wasn't screaming but I could see tears rolling from the corners of his eyes. I wanted to wake him up so bad, but I knew he needed what little sleep he could get even if it wasn't good sleep so I left him slumbering. The only thing I did was to sit with him and run my arm soothingly along his arm and side.

Alec was almost unrecognizable as the person whose picture adorned every surface I could stick it on. His face was haggard and pale, almost constantly twisted in an expression of fear or pain; his eyes were dull and almost lifeless. He never smiled, never laughed. He wouldn't even kiss me anymore.

It was all Extinium's fault. He had done this. He had caused Alec this unendurable pain.

My inner ranting was interrupted by Alec whimpering and curling in on himself even more.

"Alec, Alec wake up, Darling." I coaxed afraid that his nightmare would get even worse if I let him stay asleep. He awoke with a start and shot up into a sitting position like he almost always did when he woke up now. "Its okay, Alec, you're safe." I soothed.

He just slouched forward into my arms and tucked himself against me. I wrapped him up into my arms and pulled him on my lap. After a few minutes his breathing went back to normal and I proposed Iakona's plan,

"Alec, there's something I want to talk to you about." I started.

"Can it wait a minute? I have to go to the bathroom." He interrupted.

"Sure." I responded as I let him stand to walk to the bathroom across the hall. After what seemed like ages but in reality was probably less then a minute I stood up to check on him. Just as I raised my hand to knock softly on the door I heard a loud crash from inside.

A million things flashed through my mind as I reached for the door handle, most of them centering on Extinium somehow finding us and coming here. But it wasn't Extinium that had caused the crash. When I saw what it really was, I screamed.


	13. Control

Running. Someone's behind me. They're getting closer. It's dark. Where am I? What's going on? Who is behind me? I can hear them. They're so close. What do they want? Who are they? Trip and almost hit the ground. Keep running. Have to go faster. Getting closer. Something grabs my arm. Try to scream, nothing happens. Something stabs the back of my neck. Someone's shaking me.

I woke up with a start, no idea where I was. Where was the person who'd been chasing me?

"Its okay, Alec, you're safe." It was Magnus…that meant I had been dreaming again. I just sniffed and crawled onto his lap allowing him to circle his arms around me soothingly. I hated these stupid nightmares. They made me feel so weak, like I was a small child who couldn't do anything for himself. But at least I had Magnus, I wouldn't be able to get through this without him…then again, I still might not be able to get through it.

"Alec, there's something I want to talk to you about." Magnus asked. His fingers were playing with my hair while his other arm was circled around me.

"Can it wait a minute? I have to go to the bathroom." I interrupted. I could tell I'd been crying in my sleep again and I could feel the salt from tears crusting around my eyes, a very uncomfortable feeling.

"Sure." He replied as he pulled his arms away to let me stand. Quickly I crossed the hall and went into the bathroom closing the door behind me and heading straight for the sink. I turned the water to warm and wetted a small washcloth to rub over my face. Just as I raised my hand to wipe my face I felt a sharp stabbing sensation on the back of my neck, the same one I'd felt in my dream. I dropped the washcloth and pressed my hand against the source of the pain that still hadn't faded away. It didn't feel like there was a wound there.

"This is gonna be so much fun, even more fun then before." A sinister and familiar voice whispered in my head. I wanted to scream but couldn't, again. Suddenly pain shot down my spine and trough my arms and legs and I could no longer move the way I wanted, but I was still moving just not of my own will. I watched in horror as my hand opened the small closet next to the sink and pulled out a long sheet which my hands proceeded to tie into a nose before attaching it to a pipe running across the high ceiling.

I was trying so hard to scream, to take control of my body back but nothing was working. I couldn't move of my own accord, couldn't make any noise at all. Tears started to poor down my face, I didn't want to die. I wanted to stay here with Magnus and my family. Was that so wrong? No one should have to die at nineteen right? Why was I always the one being controlled, being stepped on? What was it about me that made it so easy for everyone to control me?

I choked on my sobs that couldn't make any sound as I slipped the noose around my neck while standing the small stool that had been perched in front of Magnus's ever-present vanity table. I was starting to wish I'd just stayed with Magnus on the couch, I could've waited to wash my face. Now I'd never get the chance to know what he had to tell me, never get the chance to tell him how much it meant to me that he'd stayed with me and was helping me get through this.

Suddenly I felt my knees buckle and one of my legs kicked the stool out from under myself. My throat crushed against the sheet as the stool crashed to the floor. I couldn't get any air, not even a small breath. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't move to attempt to get myself down. I just hung there tears pouring down my face chocking for air I couldn't get. It hurt so much, my chest felt like it was going to explode. Rapidly the edges of my vision started to blur out and darken. I was so terrified, more afraid then I'd been in my entire life, more scared even then when Extinium had been torturing me. Why did I have to die?

Abruptly the door crashed open and I heard someone scream, but I couldn't make them out through the haze that had covered my vision. They rushed over and grabbed my waist snapping their fingers and causing the noose to disappear. I felt my body collapse against them as they quickly lowered me to the ground. They were screaming something and then someone else was there, I knew it was Magnus and Iakona but I couldn't tell them apart my vision was so blurry. I felt magic start to rush through my body before everything went black.


	14. Kiss Goodbye

"Alec! No, no, no, please, Alec, please!" I sobbed over and over again as stroked his hair, his eyes, his lips, and his cheeks while Kona continued to attempt to restart his heart. Why was it taking so long? Kona was the best healer in the world so why couldn't he get Alec's heart to start again? "Alec, don't leave me, please. I need you, I can't lose you. Please wake up, wake up!" I cried.

Kona was cussing under his breath as he pressed his magic encased hands against Alec's chest in what seemed to be a useless attempt to restart his heart. Eventually Kona did something he never did because he always said it was too dangerous, something he always said could cause more problems then it solved. He phased his hands in to Alec's chest and forcefully restarted his heart with his bare hands. Alec shuddered and coughed but didn't open his eyes.

"Alec? Alec? Baby can you hear me?" I asked while my hands continued to stroke his face. He didn't respond. His breathing was labored and it sounded like he wasn't getting as much air as he should. Gently I pulsed a small amount of magic into the angry red line across his throat to make sure his airway was clear. Instantly his breathing eased up but his eyes stayed closed. Next to me Kona was murmuring several spells to keep Alec's heart beating and several others to monitor his heart beat and breathing.

"Let's take him into your bedroom." Kona said once he was satisfied with his work. I just nodded and pulled Alec gently into my arms cradling him against my body carefully. My own heart was going a mile a minute. Slowly I walked down the seemingly endless hall attempting to jostle him the least amount possible. By the time I entered the room Iakona had already pulled the blankets back and I carefully laid Alec down and tucked him in under the blankets.

"Is, is he gonna be okay?" I choked out. I was shaking and I felt like I was going to be sick.

"…his heart stopped beating for almost five minutes, Magnus. His chances are probably about fifty-fifty because of that." He said quietly. "Even if he wakes up…even if he wakes up he might not be the same." I sank to my knees next the bed as tears started to pour down my face. Every breath of air I attempted to suck in got caught in my throat and I felt as though I was choking. Kona sat down next to me and wrapped me in his arms running one hand up and down my back, but he didn't say anything, I don't think he knew what to say.

*~*~*~*

Three hours had gone by. Alec still hadn't opened his eyes, hadn't shown a single sign of waking up. All the monitoring spells Kona had on him said that his heart was doing fine though, and he was breathing easily and normally. Kona had fallen asleep on the couch in Alec and I's room shortly after he had gone back to the bathroom to see if Alec had left a note. He hadn't.

I was so confused. I knew Alec was upset, I knew he was having a hard time with this. But why would he go this far? Yeah, he'd just had a nightmare before hand, but it was nothing compared to some of the others he'd had that reduced him to a shaking, crying mess. Why would he even consider something like that when he had so much to live for?

"You're such a fucking bastard, Extinium. You're going to pay for doing this to him." I hissed under my breath. I bent over and kissed Alec's forehead, then each of his eyes and finally his lips before I pulled away to burn a perfect impression of his face into my mind. This would probably be the last time I ever saw him. I'd made up my mind, I was going to find Extinium and I was going to kill him for what he'd done to Alec, to my Alec, and I knew I would probably die as well. It had been bad enough having him torture me, but by tormenting Alec he had gone much too far and he was going to pay for it.

I knew my magic was still to low to handle a real fight so I quietly stepped over to Iakona and wrapped my hands around his wrists to take some of his magic, he didn't even flinch. I only took enough to give myself enough strength for a good fight, but it was a small enough amount that Kona probably wouldn't even notice when he woke up. When I was satisfied I set the alarm on the nightstand to wake Kona up in twenty minutes so that Alec wouldn't be alone for long. As soon as the alarm was set I crept to the library and pulled out Iakona's map book and quickly flipped through the pages until I came to New York State. It took less then two minutes to locate Extinium in a secluded area of the Adirondack Park Preserve.

Quickly I opened a portal and stepped through picturing the area in my mind. I didn't know what the exact area looked like that he was in, but I had stayed in a cabin a few miles away a few years back so I decided to go there and work my way towards Extinium. The small cabin, that was more of a shack, looked like it hadn't been cared for since I had last seen it. The roof was caving in and the door was gone as well as most of the windows. Not that I really cared, I had never planned on coming back anyways.

Closing my eyes I pictured the map book in my mind and when I was sure I remembered everything correctly I opened my eyes and began to walk north west to the area Extinium was. The two mile walk served only to increase my anger and by the time I came to the clearing where Extinium was my magic was already crackling between my fingers.

"Well, well, well. Look who's here. Come to play?" He laughed from the other side of the clearing.

"You only wish I was here to play." I whispered as I swung my hand in a wide arc in front of my body sending a wave of sizzling flames shooting towards him.


	15. Waves

Extinium quickly reciprocated my blow with a similar wave of sizzling flames directed at my head. I ducked and spun on my right foot so that I shifted out of the range of the flames and behind the cover of a large oak. I had to be careful about this; I only had so much magic at my disposal.

"Come out, come out." Extinium taunted. From my cover I saw him flick his wrist lazily and my shelter disappeared. Before I had time to react he sent hundreds of flaming needles straight for me. I managed to avoid the biggest cluster of darts but at least twenty impaled my left side and thigh. I hissed in pain and spun behind another tree as I quickly pulled the needles out fearing they might be poisoned.

My magic was sparking uncontrollably between my fingers despite my efforts to rein it in. I couldn't be wasting my magic like this, I had to control myself and quickly.

"Having problems are we?" He laughed.

"Shut the fuck up!" I screamed as I flung myself away from the tree faking one direction then shifting to the other before I shot a blast of wind at him. It was near impossible to resist the urge to smile in satisfaction as he was flung backwards, his head cracking against the thick trunk of tree. Swiftly I slid behind another tree before he could recover from the blow. Gradually he staggered to his feet clutching the back of his head and bracing himself against the tree.

"You're going to pay for that you little brat." He hissed as he scanned the clearing attempting to find my new hiding place. Taking advantage of his lapse in knowledge of my whereabouts I cupped my hands together and condensed a small ball of pure magic between them. It was a simple spell, when the ball was released from its creator's control it would expand rapidly in something akin to an explosion. When I was satisfied with my creation I floated it away from hands and into the forest a little ways before I pulled it around the outside of the clearing until it was behind Extinium. Carefully I moved the ball of magic closer and closer to the back of his head.

Just before I could detonate the small explosive Extinium spun and flung his own small bomb of compact magic at mine. When the two collided the unfamiliar types of magic repelled each other and created an immense explosion. Everything went white as I felt myself get flung backwards. After several seconds I regained awareness of my surroundings, I was on the ground, my ears were ringing, all I could see was blurry shapes and I could feel blood pouring out of my head.

I struggled to sit up but couldn't find my balance. Just as I thought I was about to succeed something slammed into my chest, several of my ribs snapped and all the air was knocked from my lungs. When I tried to breathe in again a stabbing pain shot through my body and I couldn't pull in hardly any air, I probably had a punctured lung.

"It's amazing, how easy it is to provoke you." Extinium laughed above me. I couldn't see him very well, but I could see him enough to know where he was. When I was completely sure of his position I kicked out slamming my heel into his knee-cap. He doubled over and I slung my arm around his throat squeezing as hard as I could.

"No, what's amazing is how enamored you are with your own damn voice." I growled as he struggled to get away.

"Even more amazing is how easily you let your guard down around someone who is trying to kill you." He wheezed. At first I had no idea what he was talking about, then I felt something sharp slide across and then into my abdomen. I screamed, my hold on his throat loosening enough from him to pull away and flip me onto stomach. He ground his knee into my back putting his full wait on me as he pinned my hands to the ground with another flick of his wrist.

I could feel the dirt grinding into my wounds and I had to resist the urge to cry from the excruciating pain.

"It was amazingly easy, you know, to make him hang himself in the bathroom. You and that idiot, Iakona, you two think you're so safe in your little cabin. Well, FYI, your wards don't work as well as you think. It was so simple to work my way into his mind while he was dreaming and put a controlling spell on him. And his tears while I was making him tie the noose and climb up on that stool, priceless." He laughed. I could feel my anger forcing away my control more and more as he talked and then it finally slipped enough that both my hands were encased in magic. The blue flames snapped my binds and I flipped Extinium onto the ground ignoring the pain it caused. Before he had the chance to regain his footing I slashed blindly at him with my magic.

He moved before the wave could make contact and the only effect of the blow was a tree crashing to the ground. I moved to strike again but before I could release another wave Extinium disappeared.

"Shit." I muttered as I scanned the area for him. As I searched the area I attempted to regain at least some of my lost control.

"Apparently being lovesick over someone so despicably ugly has messed up your head because you clearly can't fight well enough to even beat a mundane two year old." Extinium hissed as he placed a knife against my throat. I had no idea where he had come from.

Insulting Alec was the last straw. I let my control slip completely and let my magic swirl out around my body. Extinium flew backwards the knife clattering to the forest floor. He was screeching in pain, blood pouring from his arms where my magic had burned away his skin. I felt my magic turn my body and take control of my limbs to attack Extinium. It was like watching the fight through someone else's mind, watching but not controlling. I let my magic force my body to do what it wished hoping it was enough to kill Extinium. With his arms injured he couldn't form spells properly or fast enough to counter my attacks completely. But he was doing a good job despite that fact.

I was only semi-aware of the pain from the other blows that he landed on me as my magic-controlled body attacked him. The edges of my vision had started to blur and I was extremely dizzy, the only thing keeping me from falling over was my magic. I wasn't sure if the dizziness and impending black out were caused by overuse of my magic or if maybe the needles really had been poisoned. The only thing I was really sure of was that I had to make sure Extinium was as close to dead as possible before I blacked out.

Just as my magic was about to deal a blow that would be fatal to Extinium and probably myself as well, I heard someone screaming my name. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it. Whoever it was, they were getting closer and continuing to scream my name.


	16. Beeping

I awoke to an infernal beeping noise that really made me want to shoot something, multiple times. Groggily I cracked open my eyes intent on tracking down the beeping noise and destroying it, with my bare hands if necessary. Lazily I rolled over while groping around for the source of the blasted noise. My rolling was concluded by a drop onto the floor which annoyed me almost much as the ceaseless beeping.

"What the fuck?" I grumbled as I sat up and looked around for the source of the noise that my mind had finally comprehended as an alarm clock. I roughly stabbed the button to shut the device off; the world had been a much better place before alarm clocks as far as I was concerned. I quickly rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms as I tried to remember what the hell I was doing in Magnus's room and on his couch. When I couldn't come up with anything I pulled my hands away from my eyes and scanned the room. My eyes settled on Alec laying on the bed under the thick comforter and looking slightly pale.

"Damnit." I hissed when I recalled the events of the afternoon. "Magnus?!" I called out. There was no answer, no noise at all, actually, other then Alec and I's soft breathing. I couldn't even sense Magnus presence. "Magnus?!" I called again hoping it was just my lack of magic that was keeping me from sensing his presence in the house. When I still didn't get an answer I kicked away the blankets tangled around my legs and stumbled into the hallway.

After looking into every room in the house and not finding Magnus I went back into his room to check on Alec. It was pretty obvious where Magnus was, but I didn't want to think about it so I shoved it to the back of my mind. I was probably wrong anyways; maybe he just took a walk to clear his head a bit…yeah, a walk. That was all.

"Just a walk." I murmured. As I looked over him Alec began to stir and I gently coaxed him awake. He blinked several times then focused his eyes on me.

"Kona." His voice was scratchy.

"Hey, how you feeling?" I asked as I sat down on the bed next to him.

"Tired." He replied after several moments of contemplation.

"Does your neck hurt at all?" I asked. He didn't seem like he had any brain damage from being without air for as long as he had, but I couldn't be sure yet.

"No, actually." He mumbled as he cast his eyes down.

"Good. Do you know what day it is?" I questioned.

"Umm…October fourteenth?" He answered.

"Well, actually it's the fifteenth, but you've been out cold for almost a day so close enough."

"Kona…Where's Magnus?" He asked suddenly.

"Umm… well, I-I don't…know." I answered honestly. "He was here before I passed out on the couch, but when I woke up he was gone. I tried to find him with a basic tracking spell but it didn't work and I don't have enough magic for a complex tracking spell."

"He, he left?" Alec sounded heart broken, it made me want to find Magnus and beat the shit out of him, baby brother or not. After everything Alec had been through how could Magnus just up and run off without a word?

"I don't know." I whispered.

"Kona, you have to find him…please." Alec begged, I'd never seen someone look so desperate. "Use the map book or something, please, you-you have to!" He was on the verge of tears.

"Alright, alright, I'll look in the map book, you just stay in here and try and rest a bit alright?" I responded. He nodded weakly as I stood up quickly to walk into the library. I'd always hated to see people cry, especially people I knew, ever since I was little.

The library was dark and filled with the smell of old books. I breathed in deeply as I flicked on the light switch. The map book was already laid out on one of the small tables open to New York, a fact I hadn't noticed when I had looked into the room earlier. I stepped over to the table and carefully scanned through the mass of black dots and name tags on the page. Finally I located Magnus's Name in a remote part of the wilderness. I sucked in a deep breath when I saw the tag next to his, Extinium's tag.

"What is it, Iakona?" Alec asked, I turned to see him standing in the doorway of the library.

"Nothing, I know where Magnus is now. I'm going to go get him." I answered hastily as I slapped the book shut behind me. "You stay put." I told him as I opened a portal.

"What?! Why can't I come with you?" He sounded astonished that I would even consider making him stay here.

"Because I said so." I answered as I stepped through the portal picturing the familiar area where Magnus was located. Suddenly I felt the sensation of someone else entering the portal and getting pulled along behind me. The only thing that could've caused the sensation was if Alec had stepped through the portal behind me without a thought in his mind so as to get pulled to wherever I was going. I wanted to cuss at him for his stupidity but my voice was lost in the spinning of traveling though the portal.

We both landed on a patch of ground covered in burnt grass and littered with hundreds of other burnt-out-of-recognition objects. Alec stumbled slightly and I grabbed his arm to steady him.

"What the hell were you thinking, dammit?! I told you to stay put!" I hissed at him. I was tempted to open another portal, drag him home, knock him out and leave him there. "Alec!?" I shook his arm when he didn't respond.

"Magnus…" He whispered, looking at something off in the distance. Before I could react he yanked his arm away from my hand and took off at a full out sprint, something I hadn't thought him capable of in his current condition. When I saw what he was running towards I dashed after him, screaming at him to stop. If he got to close to Magnus and Extinium's fight it would kill him, the amount of pure magic swirling around the two of them was astonishing. Anything that came within twenty feet of the fight would get scorched or even completely burnt away by the magic. But Alec didn't stop, he kept running and he was to far away for me to do anything about it.

I screamed one last time as he vaulted over a log and sprinted the last ten feet to Magnus.


	17. Sob

"You stay put." Kona said as he stepped towards the portal.

"What?! Why can't I come with you?" I demanded. Magnus was my boyfriend, I had every right to go with Kona to drag him back from wherever he was and demand a very good explanation as to why he had left.

"Because I said so." He responded as he stepped through the portal. I was about to shout at him that I wasn't a child but just as I opened my mouth he disappeared. For several seconds I stood there staring at the portal before I cleared my mind and stepped through after Kona. He was not leaving me here like a useless child.

When I came out of the Portal I almost lost my balance but Kona caught me and started yelling at me though I had no idea what he was saying. I was too terrified by what I saw infrount of me to care about what he was shouting. All the trees I could see were in flames or already charred beyond recognition. There was debris everywhere, flaming pine needles, burnt sticks, even a few dead birds and other small animals.

The smell of smoke was thick and choking, it hurt to breath. But even thicker then the smoke was the feeling of power and magic coating the entire area and making my hair stand on end as it brushed against my skin.

But none of those things mattered at all when I saw Magnus. He was covered in glistening blood that coated his face and arms. His purple shirt hung in blood soaked tatters barely managing to remain attached to his lean frame. Even from this distance I could see how his body shook with every breath he took, how he looked like he was about to collapse. I could see his magic swirling around his body, see it forcing blows he didn't have the power for towards Extinium.

"Magnus." I whispered before I yanked my arm free from Iakona's grasp and took off running towards the only thing that mattered to me in that moment. I had to stop him. I had to keep Magnus from killing himself even if it killed me. My legs and my chest ached from the effort of sprinting through the decimated forest and vaulting over the fallen logs. I could hear Kona screaming behind me to stop but I didn't listen. I already knew what this would do to me, already knew it would kill me. But I didn't care. I had to get to Magnus.

As Kona continued to scream at me I vaulted the last log separating Magnus and I bracing my body for the pain I knew was about to ensue. Magnus still hadn't noticed my presence or heard my begging screams pleading him to stop. I wasn't even sure he could even hear me at all at this point.

When I was finally close enough I wrapped my arms around his torso and buried my face between his shoulder blades expecting to feel pain shooting through me.

"Magnus, stop please stop." I sobbed before I realized that what I was feeling wasn't pain but the same warm, tingling sensation I felt whenever I shared my strength with Magnus. I pulled me face away from his back enough to see that his magic had begun to swirl around both of us, rather then destroying me.

Magnus finally heard my pleas when he felt my arms around him and instantly his swirling magic disappeared and he collapsed against me. Carefully I lowered him to the ground watching out of the corner of my eye as Iakona took Magnus's place in fighting Extinium who seemed to be wounded even worse then Magnus.

Gently I cradled Magnus against me and soothingly brushed several bloody strands of hair from his face. His eyes were barely open but tears were pouring down his face.

"I'm sorry, Alec, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." He sobbed, his entire body shaking with the effort of gasping for air through the sobs wracking his body.

"Shhh, shhh, you didn't hurt me, Magnus. I'm fine, I promise I'm fine." I soothed as I examined what I could see of his wounds. There was a large, jagged gash running across his forehead that was still oozing blood down his face. I did my best to wipe as much of the red liquid from his eyes as possible. His arms were laced with thin burns from his magic and his chest had one large, angry burn across it. Magnus's breathing was labored and looked like it was causing him pain, though thankfully there was no blood bubbling between his lips.

"I di-didn't?" He gasped.

"No, you didn't hurt me." I assured him again. "You have to hang in there alright? Kona and I are gonna get you outta here but you have to hang on, alright?" He just nodded weakly as he rested his head on my shoulder.

I was panicking, I could tell by how fast my heart was pounding and the short ragged breaths I was taking. Could we all get out of this alive or were Magnus, Kona and I going to die here? Either way, I wasn't leaving Magnus. No matter what happened I wasn't letting him out of my site.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash and I pulled Magnus as close to me as I could, shielding him with my body. When the light disappeared Extinium was gone and Kona was on his knees gasping for breath.

"Kona!" I shouted frantically, I could feel Magnus's pulse fading beneath my finger tips. At the sound of my shout he pulled himself to his feet and came towards us as quickly as he could. When he reached us he fell to his knees and took Magnus from my grasp.

"Go, I can't heal him with you here." He ordered. Shakily I stood up and retreated to the edge of the clearing where I collapsed onto a fallen log. Warm tears slid down my face as I watched Kona's red magic flowing from his hands into Magnus's wounds. It was amazing that Kona still had enough strength to heal Magnus after the amount he'd already used today.

It seemed like ages before the flow of Kona's Magic ceased and I stood up to run back to them. When I reached them Kona looked up at me with a small smile on his face that didn't fit with the half dead look on the rest of his face.

"He's gonna be okay." Iakona whispered. When my mind finally processed his words I sat down in front of them and pulled Magnus towards me and buried my face in his hair sobbing in relief. Even with Magnus cradled against me Iakona get a firm grip on his little brother.

"What happened to Extinium?" I asked worriedly, I was terrified he could come back and try to hurt us again.

"He's gone. Never coming back." He murmured.

After several moments Kona whispered the spell to open a portal so we could get out of the destroyed clearing and impending storm that was gathering on the horizon.

"Are we going back to the cabin?" I questioned as I stood with Magnus in my arms ignoring the protest from my underused muscles.

"Yeah, back to the cabin." He mumbled, he looked like he was about to fall over. Quickly I tightened my grip on Magnus and stepped into the portal picturing our cozy room in the Canadian forests. As soon as my feet touched the soft carpet I walked to the couch and set Magnus down. Kona appeared right behind us and collapsed into one of the chairs in front of the fireplace.

"Are you okay?" I asked Kona as I cut away Magnus tattered shirt and pants with a pair of scissors.

"Sleepy." He mumbled.

"Alright, I pull the couch bed out for you." I told him as I picked Magnus back up and placed him on our bed beneath the warm down comforter. Once I was sure he was comfortable I went back to the couch and pulled off the cushions and took out the hide-away bed. I grabbed a spare pillow and blanket from the hall closet and helped Kona stumbled to the bed. With some coaxing I managed to get him to take off his shoes and coat before he passed out. Carefully I covered him with the blanket before I stripped off my own clothing and slid into bed with Magnus.

"I love you." I whispered against the skin of his neck as I curled up against him and fell quickly asleep.


	18. Epilogue

The first thing I became aware of was Magnus's warm lips trailing softly down my neck. Moaning slightly I arched my neck towards the warmth seeking more contact, though I didn't bother to open my eyes. Magnus hummed softly against my skin and continued to lavish my neck with his lips.

"Good morning, darling." He whispered after a few moments. Lazily I cracked my eyes open and smiled softly at him. The weak sunlight filtering through the slit between the drapes glinted off his golden eyes lending them more radiance then they normally held.

"Morning." I murmured back as I curled my body against his.

"I love you." He crooned against my forehead.

"I know. I love you to." I smiled as I tenderly traced patterns against his bare chest. I was amazed that it only taken a week for his wounds to disappear. Even with Iakona's healing abilities I hadn't expected him to heal so fast nor to have not a trace of any wounds.

"Kona made breakfast if you're hungry."

"What did he make?"

"French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. We can eat up here if you want."

"No, I'm fine." I assured. And I was fine, well, fine enough to go downstairs and eat breakfast with Kona anyways. "Just let me go to the bathroom really quick."

"Go right ahead, I need to find a shirt anyways." Pressing a quick kiss against my lips he stood from the bed gently pulling me up with him. Quickly I kissed him back before sliding around him and into the small bathroom tucked in the corner of our cozy room in the cabin. Once I stepped inside I closed the door enough to keep anyone from seeing in but still left it open just slightly. I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of being in a small, closed off room alone, let alone a bathroom.

After I was finished I stepped back into our room and found Magnus standing in front of the closet hands on his hips and his face screwed up in a contemplative look.

"Blue or green?" He indicated two of the shirts he had hanging up in the closet with a quick wave of his hand that caused them to glow faintly for a moment before they returned to their original, non-glowing colours. Simple spells like that were all that he was allowed to do at the moment; Kona was watching him attentively to make sure he didn't use more magic then he was capable of. Using to much would drastically slow down the rest of his healing as well as his ability to regenerate his magic.

"Um…green?" I mumbled awkwardly. He'd already established that I had pretty much no sense of fashion what-so-ever, so I wasn't quite sure why he was asking me.

"Right, green." He smiled as he carefully pulled the shirt from its hanger and slipped it over his head. After fiddling with his shirt in front of the mirror to make sure it was sitting just right on his lean frame he smiled contentedly and pulled me from the bed into his arms.

"I can't believe you still manage to stay so colorful when you almost died last week." I mumbled playfully as I examined his neon green shirt with silver swirls and loose fitting, pink, silk pajama pants.

"What can I say, it's part of who I am…at the moment anyways." He grinned playfully.

"At the moment?"

"You look adorable when you use that confused-pouty face."

"What do you mean 'At the moment'?" I repeated

"Do you honestly think I was this sparkly and colorful in the eighteen hundreds?" He questioned.

"…well, no."

"Exactly. Being colorful and sparkly is what suits me at the moment. If I ever decided that I liked some other style better then I would switch to that style." He explained.

"But I like you all sparkly and colorful." I mumbled my face heating up slightly at the revelation.

"And so do I. To be honest this is the longest any of my styles have lasted."

"Really?"

"Yes." He ceased the conversation by sealing his lips against mine softly. I sighed happily and tilted my head back to change the angle of the kiss. I whimpered slightly when he finally pulled away.

"I was enjoying that." I pouted.

"As was I, but the food is gonna get cold if we don't go downstairs and eat it. I don't even want to imagine what Kona could do that food if he tried to heat it up with a spell. It might be even worse then Isabelle's cooking, even if it started out amazing."

Playfully I slapped him on the arm, "Be nice, he's not as bad at regular magic as you make him out to be." Kona really wasn't that bad at regular magic I'd figured out, it was on the spot magic he had issues with. He could perform any spell you wanted him to as long as you gave him enough time to sit and think through it. But if you threw him into a situation where he had to perform spells instantly without a chance to think it out, that's where he ran into problems. Explosive problems.

"Yes, but he's my big brother so I'm still aloud to make fun of him every now and then."

"Every now and then?" I arched my eyebrow at his choice of words. "

"When you've lived for as long as I have, 'every now and then' takes on new meaning." He replied cryptically as he pulled me gently into the hall and downstairs.

"I was starting to wonder if you two were even going to come down. I thought I was gonna have to eat all this food myself." Kona mumbled when he saw Magnus descending the stairs with me tucked protectively against his side.

"O' shush. You'd think after over eight hundred years you would have slightly more patience." Magnus teased.

Kona just rolled his eyes, "Whatever, just come eat. Besides, it's not like you're any better, you're the most impatient person I know." Magnus just stuck his tongue out playfully at his adopted brother.

"Thanks for cooking breakfast, Kona." I smiled as I sat down at the small table tucked in the kitchen.

"…you're welcome. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Alright, I guess." I responded as I filled a plate with food, I was starving. My body was not happy with the fact that I'd pretty much starved myself for over a week.

"Oh yes, you seem perfectly fine. I'm sure the reason your eyes keep shooting out the window every five seconds is to look at the trees." He replied sarcastically.

"Shut up, Kona. Now." Magnus's face had hardened into an icy glare directed at his brother.

"Magnus," I said gently. Kona was right; I was being a little paranoid. I couldn't help the constant looking out the window or the jumping at small noises, let alone the claustrophobia. Magnus just grumbled something unintelligible and went back to eating his food.

"Well, I need to head out for a little while. A friend of mine needs some help. I should hopefully be back around nightfall." Kona said as he scooped up the last bit of eggs from his plate before he stood up to leave.

"The wards are all up…right?" I asked, staring intently at my plate.

"Yes, all the wards are all up. I strengthened them last night and reworked some of the security measures as well." Kona responded.

"…Okay." I replied.

"You know, if you want me to stay you can just ask. My friend can wait, he just needs help decoding an old text, it's not something that needs to be taken care of immediately." He said gently when he noticed me chewing on my lip and still focusing way too intently at my plate.

"No, I'm fine, Magnus will be here." I answered after a moment, casting a quick glace at Magnus who smiled a soft, reassuring smile.

"Okay, I'll see you two later. And as for you," He pointed at Magnus, "No. Complicated. Magic. At. ALL."

"Never." Magnus replied with mock horror painting his face.

"I mean it, Magnus." Kona glared.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing, relax." Magnus smirked.

On his way out the door Kona mumbled something that sounded a lot like "Why did I have to stick myself with a LITTLE brother?"

"Someone didn't have his coffee this morning." Magnus chuckled as he stared at the closed door while he contentedly sipped his own cup that was more sugar and whipped cream then coffee.

"Magnus," I started to reproach him again for annoying his brother.

"We've been over this already, I believe." He rolled his eyes playfully.

"Still, it apparently didn't sink in the first time."

"Your argument would hold a lot more weight if you didn't let Jace get away with the exact same thing every day."

I paused for a second before I answered, "…Did you just compare yourself to Jace?"

Magnus choked on his mouthful of whipped cream but managed to keep almost all of it in his mouth. "O' god, I did!"

"Interesting." I snickered. He seemed so astonished by what I had pointed out to him that he had apparently forgotten the few bits of whipped cream sliding down his chin. "You're going to stain your shirt." I chided as I picked up a napkin and gently wiped the remnants of the white mess off of his chin. It was impossible not to blush as I thought about other white messes I had seen dribbling down his chin…and other parts of his body.

"You're so cute when you do things like that." He smiled. My already deep red blush increased at least two more shades.

"What are you blushing for?" He arched his eyebrows.

"Nothing." I mumbled as I stood from the table.

"Where are you going?"

"Ummm…"

He chuckled quietly and stood up to encase me in a warm embrace. "How about we go curl up with a bunch of blankets, some hot cocoa and watch a funny movie?" He suggested.

"That sounds wonderful."

"Good." He placed a lingering kiss at the top of my nose before pulling me back up the stairs and into our room.

After he had gathered what he deemed to be a sufficient amount of blankets (about five comforters and six or so regular blankets) from around the house he piled them all on the bed and pulled me into the fluffy nest he'd created. I curled up against him and tucked my head beneath his. I was amazingly comfortable, and secure, in our over blanketed bed.

"So, what movie?" He inquired as soon as we both had settled in completely.

"Um, how about-" The end of my response was drowned out by a ground shaking clap of thunder. My whole body tensed and I let out a small scream. Instantly Magnus had pulled me as close to his body as possible. One arm was wrapped securely around my waist, the other protectively cradling my head beneath his while one of his legs hooked behind both of mine.

"Shh, shh, its okay, it's okay." He soothed attempting to clam me down as I started to hyperventilate. Just as my breathing started to slow to its normal rate another clap of thunder, louder than the first one, shook the house again. I let out a small whimper as a few tears escaped my tightly clenched eyes.

Magnus uttered a long string of curses before he pulled his arm away from my back and murmured a sound proofing spell. Said spell was probably way above what Kona would allow him to do at the moment, but I didn't object when I heard the third clap of thunder cut of abruptly.

"Its okay, Alec, its okay." He soothed while he caressed my back with his warm hand.

"Distract me." I gasped. I might not be able to hear the storm, but I still knew it was there, pounding away at the cabin. The rain and hail were still penetrating every little crack as they tried to infiltrate my safe haven.

"How?"

"I don't care, just distract me!" I almost screamed. After he calmed me down slightly, again, he soothingly pressed his lips against mine. I angled my head to change the angle of the kiss hoping that if it was deeper it would push the storm out of my mind, because right now it was not doing that.

Magnus responded by gently opening my lips with his own and sliding his warm tongue into my mouth. While both our mouths were wrestling for control I felt his hands slide up my shirt and start gently kneading the skin they crossed. I pulled my mouth away and moaned when he gently squeezed one of my nipples between his soft fingers. He took the opportunity to pull my shirt over my head. I shivered slightly at the brush of cold air over my heated skin but before I could complain Magnus had pulled a blanket over top of us creating something of a blanket cave.

Gently he rolled us so that I was on my back and he was resting lightly on top of me. "Comfy?" Magnus whispered against my neck. I nodded as I weaved my fingers into his soft hair and tugged gently, the way he always said he liked. Not that I'd been comfortable with it at first, I'd hated the idea that I might hurt him. But eventually I had figured out that he really did enjoy the soft tugging.

He moaned slightly at the sensation I was creating on his scalp as he worked his way down my neck with his lips. As soon as he was satisfied that his favorite spot on my neck, and mine as well, had been paid enough attention to he moved farther down. His lips slowly ghosted back and forth across my chest until finally he pressed his lips firmly on one of my taught peaks. I groaned as he massaged it with his mouth while paying equal attention to the other with his hand. After several moments he slid his mouth to cover the one he'd been massaging with his fingers.

Softly he trailed his kisses lower and I couldn't help but arch my back as his lips skimmed along the top of my sweat pants.

"Eager, are we?" He teased as he pulled his mouth away from my skin to look up at me through his lashes.

"Yes!" I groaned as I arched my hips again trying to get him back to what he'd been doing before. He chuckled slightly as he sat up enough to pull of his shirt as well as both our pants.

"You're so beautiful, Alec." He crooned as his eyes swept all of my exposed skin while his fingers played with the elastic band of my boxers.

"No I'm not." I mumbled, instantly regretting it.

"What?" Magnus looked taken aback. "Why don't you think you're beautiful, Alec? Every time I told you that before, you smiled and blushed, even said thank you a couple times. What changed?" He asked softly. His hands had left my boxers and were now cupping my face.

"I changed." I whispered.

Magnus's eyebrows knitted together as he stared intently into my eyes, "No, Alec, you haven't changed. What happened to you did not change how amazingly beautiful you are."

"Yes it did." I choked out as tears started to roll down my face.

"Alec, Alec, shh, it's okay." He soothed as he wiped the tears from my eyes with his thumbs. "Alec, look at me." I did as he requested and opened my eyes to find his only several inches from mine. "You are more beautiful then anyone in the world. I love every single part of you, your eyes, your skin, your scars, I love all of it. What happened did not change that and it never will. You. Are. Beautiful." He accented the last three words with soft kisses across my face.

"You…you really still think I'm beautiful?"

"I never stopped." He whispered into my ear.

"I love you." I sighed as the tears stopped sliding from my eyes.

"I love you to. Always have and always will." He responded as he pulled my boxers down my legs and discarded them somewhere towards the bottom of the bed. He trailed his lips back down my body until he reached the inside of my thigh which he massaged with his lips.

"Magnus!" I groaned. I felt his lips pull into a smile as he laid one last kiss on the inside of my thigh before pulling away and letting his hot breath waft over me. I couldn't help the cry of pleasure as he engulfed me and pulled me deep into his throat. His hands held my hips steady as he bobbed his head taking time to swirl his tongue around the tip when he pulled up. As he continued to suck me he hooked both my legs over his shoulders and snapped his fingers causing a small jar to appear next to us.

He unscrewed the lid and ran his fingers through the sweet smelling substance. Once he was satisfied he pulled his hand back to my body and slid one finger inside. I clenched slightly in pain before the pleasure of him stroking me and sucking me took over once more. Magnus hummed softly as he slid another finger inside my body and started to stretch me.

I was shaking with how much I wanted him right now. Once he was satisfied that he'd stretched me out enough he pulled his fingers away, I whimpered at the loss.

"Patients, love." He smiled as he quickly coated himself with the strawberry scented substance. Once he was satisfied he placed himself at my entrance and pushed inside gently.

"Magnus!" I groaned when he stopped moving.

"Yes, love?" I knew he was teasing me. He loved to tease me.

"MOVE!" I ground out.

"As you wish." He chuckled. He started out slow, just barely pulling out each time. But slowly his self control started to slip and he moved faster and faster. I moaned and arched my back off of the bed each time he hit my sweet spot.

"Alec!" He moaned as his thrusts became more erratic. Suddenly I felt his hand encase my member and he began to pump in time with his thrusts. I cried out in pleasure trying to hold on as long as I could. But all of my remaining control slipped when I felt him shoot off inside me. I groaned and arched my back when my own seed spilled across our stomachs. Magnus kept thrusting until both of us were completely spent.

Once he stopped moving he stayed inside me and panted softly into the crook of my neck. After several minutes he kissed my shoulder and rolled off of me. He spooned his body against mine and gently kissed the back of my neck.

"I love you." He whispered. I could hear the pleasured exhaustion in his voice.

"I love you to. So much." I responded. "…Magnus? Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything." He whispered against my hair.

"Back in the clearing, when I wrapped my arms around you…why didn't your magic kill me?" I asked. I'd been thinking about it ever since it happened, but I just couldn't figure it out.

"I don't know, honestly. I talked to Kona about it and he said it was probably because of how much time we spend together. You spend so much time around me and have been healed by me so many times, as well as shared my magic through the alliance rune. Kona thinks that because of that your body was so used to my magic, and my magic was so accustomed to you that it didn't see you as an enemy, but another part of me." He explained. "But that's all just guess work, we don't really know for sure."

"Okay." I responded sleepily. I would talk with him about it more later, but right now I was exhausted. It took only moments for the two of us to fall asleep, the raging storm completely forgotten.


End file.
